U.s. Debt Limit | featured news

Budget talks between President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are at a frustrating standstill, leading a top Republican to launch a long-shot proposal to give Obama sweeping new powers to muscle through an increase in the government's debt limit without the approval of a bitterly divided Congress.

President Obama continued to push for a $4-trillion deal to rein in government deficits Sunday, but a White House meeting with congressional leaders failed to break the deadlock over spending and taxes that has stalemated discussions for more than a month.

Talks to reach a more ambitious deficit-reduction deal effectively broke down on Saturday, House Speaker John Boehner said, as he and fellow Republicans resisted any White House attempts that could increase taxes.

The Speaker of the House said that there were still significant obstacles in the way of an agreement.

Senate negotiators, including Amy Klobuchar, D.- Minn., on Thursday announced a final deal that ends a 45-cent per gallon tax credit for ethanol.

President Obama seeks up to $4 trillion in deficit cuts, putting Social Security, Medicare, defense spending and tax reform on the table as part of a balanced approach to cuts, officials say.

In advance of Thursday’s White House meeting to resolve the stalemate in the debt talks, we've learned that Obama and Speaker Boehner share a goal to prove they can get a 'big' deal done.

Republicans would accept a “mini” deal with the Obama administration on raising the debt limit, Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a Republican leader, said. Cornyn said today on “Fox News Sunday” that while Republicans would prefer a long-term settlement, they would accept a shorter-term agreement if that’s all they could get done. The U.S. Treasury Department has projected that on Aug. 2 the U.S. will no longer be able to meet obligations if the legal debt ceiling isn’t raised.

President Barack Obama pressed his case on Saturday for achieving deficit reduction, in part by ending tax breaks and singling out hedge fund managers, oil companies and billionaires to take the hit.

Regardless of any tax concessions President Obama achieves, the end result would favor Republican goals of cutting spending and government services. Even as the political battle mounts over federal spending, the end result for federal policy is already visible — and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drastically fewer government services.