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Thursday's highlights (and lowlights):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid raised the possibility that the Senate might be able to finish its work on the budget bill by the end of the day, sending it to the House sooner rather later. If Republicans went along, that would give the House more time to act to avert a government shutdown next week.

Perhaps predictably, Republicans didn't go along. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, in particular.

After Reid asked for unanimous consent to accelerate the process so the Senate could vote Thursday, Lee and Cruz got into a rhetorical knife fight with fellow Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee. It was the Senate GOP civil war breaking out into the open.

Corker accused Lee and Cruz of wanting to delay the vote until Friday because they had sent out news releases to their Tea Party supporters to expect "a show" on Friday — and a Thursday evening vote would ruin their plans. Cruz and Lee didn't deny it.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats and House Republicans showed themselves no closer to a compromise to keep the federal government funded past Monday.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was asked if Republicans controlling the House would accept from the Senate a so-called "clean" continuing resolution to fund the government — one stripped of House language to defund Obamacare.

"I don't, I do not see that happening," Boehner told reporters.

At a news conference on the other side of the Capitol, Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, said: "We want a clean CR. That's what we're going to get."

Turning to a flat-screen TV that was being used as a shutdown clock, Reid said: "If they want to shut down the government, here's how much time they have to figure it out: 4 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes and 15 seconds."

House Republicans also unveiled a number of items they hope to trade Democrats for next month when Congress turns to a debt-ceiling increase. Among House requests: a one-year delay in implementing Obamacare. Asked if Democrats would accept that, Reid simply said, "No."

Adding to the gloom, Reid said he and Boehner haven't talked at all in recent days.

For his part, President Obama sounded as adamant as everyone else. He told an audience at a Largo, Md., event, about Republican efforts to halt Obamacare: "That's not going to happen as long as I'm president. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay."

What's next?

Friday
Reid says the Senate should vote on the spending legislation Friday.

First, the Senate will take a vote to end the current period of debate. Assuming that gets the needed 60 votes, which now seems likely, the Senate would proceed to debate the actual House continuing resolution. At least 60 senators also would have to agree to end debate on the spending bill.

Senate Democrats will substitute the House's continuing resolution with an amendment that removes the Obamacare defunding language. That would require only 51 votes, which Senate Democrats should have no trouble getting. The Senate could then get the spending bill back to the House late Friday.

Also on Friday, and in the other wing of the Capitol, the House will take up its debt-ceiling bill, which is expected to emerge from the Rules Committee late Thursday. The House is expected to pass that measure sometime Friday.

The one unmovable thing is the deadline to avoid a shutdown; that's midnight Monday, the end of the month.

The showdown over a possible government shutdown is still going on, but already some Republicans are thinking about the next big battle on the horizon — the debt ceiling.

On Thursday, the House GOP's wish list of demands in return for raising the government's debt limit went public.

Here's a look at a list of what Republicans want, drawn from an outline of the GOP's debt-ceiling bill obtained by National Review. It's just a preliminary document, still subject to discussion and not even agreed on by all House Republicans, but it provides a useful guide to GOP thinking at the moment.

'One Year Debt Limit Increase'

House Republicans don't want to raise the debt limit from its current $16.7 trillion to a new dollar figure. Rather, they would just suspend enforcement of the limit until December 2014. (Congress did something similar back in January.) Why one year? Because they want it to line up with the next item on their list.

'One Year Obamacare delay'

Republicans say implementation of the health law's major provisions — including the individual mandate requiring most people to buy health insurance — needs to be pushed back because the system isn't ready. As evidence, they point to President Obama's decision earlier this year to delay for a year the requirement that all large employers provide insurance. (A year-long delay could also give them more time to try to get rid of the law.)

'Tax Reform Instructions'

As part of the debt-ceiling deal, Republicans want to lay out "what tax reform should look like." They say this outline would be similar to a bill they passed last year, which was based on the principles of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan's budget. They would also "fast track" the tax legislation so it would be subject to special time-saving rules.

'Energy provisions'

Keystone XL pipeline construction: The proposal, which Republicans have been pushing for years despite the concerns of environmentalists, would complete the Keystone pipeline to transport crude oil to the U.S. from Alberta, Canada.

Coal ash regulations: The House passed a bill in July that would give states more authority to determine how they dispose of the ash produced from burning coal, thus limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA carbon regulations: Republicans want to prevent the EPA's new carbon-dioxide emission regulations on all future coal and natural gas power plants.

Offshore drilling: Republicans would like to expand offshore drilling on the coasts of California, Virginia and South Carolina.

The GOP is also focused on greater energy production on federal lands.

'Regulatory reforms'

REINS Act: Implementation of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act would require Congress to approve any federal regulation that has an annual economic impact of $100 million or more.

Block net neutrality: Republicans want to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's regulations that prevent internet service providers from discriminating in favor of or against other websites and content providers.

'Mandatory Spending Reforms'

These changes, the House document says, would be "mostly from the sequester replacement bills we passed last year." They would include overhauling the retirement program for federal employees, changing the funding rules for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and adjusting the rules governing the child tax credit. Republicans also want to repeal the Social Services Block Grant, which gives federal money to states for things like daycare and services for people with disabilities.

'Health Spending Reforms'

Republicans are looking to make some modifications to entitlement programs — including making the wealthy pay more under Medicare (something Obama has also suggested) and ending a "gimmick" that allows states to get more Medicaid dollars from the federal government. They also want limits on malpractice lawsuits; changes to a program that gives money to hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of low-income patients; and to get rid of a piece of Obamacare that funds preventive care.

Is the GOP still the "party of business"?

With the party's long-standing and ongoing push for lower taxes and fewer regulations — both in Washington and in state legislatures — Republicans can reasonably make that claim.

Yet some of the congressional Republican rhetoric in the battle over a continuing resolution, the debt ceiling and defunding Obamacare makes it clear that there's a significant amount of tension between the party and the business community.

Much of the strong language comes from the Tea Party and its friends on Capitol Hill.

In his 21-hour marathon speech in the Senate this week, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas spoke of the need to listen to the little guy rather than the CEOs and titans of business.

At a recent rally on the Capitol grounds, Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee decried the exemptions big business has gotten from the White House on Obamacare — lumping that group in with what he calls the president's "cronies." He was cheered when he asked the crowd, "Is that fair?"

The Tea Party crowd answered with a resounding "Noooooo!"

And it's not just this particular summer of discontent that has driven this narrative.

Conservative voices in the party have been grumbling about big business since the law known as TARP — passed in late 2008 in response to the mortgage crisis — was signed by President Bush with strong backing from Wall Street and the business community.

Then came the auto industry bailout. More GOP outrage.

Toss in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's calls for passage of comprehensive immigration reform, and it's easy to forget that the GOP and big business have long been close allies.

Last week the chamber sent a letter to members of the Republican-controlled House, urging them not to flirt with a government shutdown. The correspondence warned that such threats, combined with the talk of not raising the debt ceiling later this month, could trigger disruptive consequences for an economy that's already underperforming.

"I like to deal in reality," says Bruce Josten, the business group's top government affairs officer.

That reality, he explains, is the need to deal with things like entitlement reform, fixing the immigration system and protecting the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

As for the politics of all of this, Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College says Republican members of Congress come mostly from safe GOP districts — which means they are worried about pleasing the activist voices in their party.

Right now, that often means the Tea Party. Pitney says the debate over defunding Obamacare indicates that the activists, and not the business community, have captured the attention of GOP officeholders.

Against that backdrop, the chamber hosted an event at its Washington headquarters this week. The keynote speaker was former Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Asked about the battles this week in Congress, Daniels, who is now president of Purdue University, says he hopes the parties get past this current skirmish.

A budget needs to be passed and a shutdown should be averted, he says. Further, Daniels called the Chamber of Commerce an important institutional voice — one that he hopes it will use more loudly.

After the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that reportedly killed more than 1,000 people and has been blamed on Bashar Assad's regime, the Syrian president's ambassador to the U.N. claimed that opposition forces had used such weapons at least three times in the days immediately after.

As Russia's RT.com reported on Aug. 28:

"Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said he had requested of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the team of experts currently in Damascus investigating an alleged use of chemical weapons last week also investigate ... other attacks.

The attacks took place on August 22, 24 and 25 in Jobar, Sahnaya, and al-Bahariya, Jaafari told journalists Wednesday. The 'militants' used toxic chemical gas against the Syrian army, the diplomat said."