Restarting the debt limit budget talks for the first time since they broke down about two weeks ago, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both parties and Houses met in the White House Thursday morning in a renewed attempt to bridge the divide between the two sides.
Although he characterized the negotiations in a post-meeting press conference as “very constructive,” Obama clarified that no breakthroughs had occurred so far. However, the president also stated his belief that a foundation for substantive progress had been established and that the hard work of negotiating a concrete deal would begin soon.
“I will reconvene congressional leaders here on Sunday with the expectation that at that point the parties will at least know where each other’s bottom lines are, and we’ll hopefully be in a position to then start engaging in the hard bargaining that’s necessary to get a deal done,” said Obama.
“I want to emphasize that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, and the parties are still far apart on a wide range of issues,” the president went on to say. “Everybody acknowledged that there’s going to be pain involved politically on all sides.”
In recent days, the president has signaled to the opposition a new willingness for deeper cuts in entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare, in return for Republican concessions on tax increases.
Instead of the previously oft-cited $2 trillion in savings, the White House is attempting to strike a more ambitious budget deal that amounts to between $3 trillion and $4 trillion in savings over the next decade. Such a deal, however, may not play well with rank-and-file legislators on both sides.
The White House has not offered any specific details as to how such cuts would be achieved, but previous plans to reform Social Security have centered on an adjusting the cost-of-living calculation upon which payments are based.
Ideas for reforming Medicare, most notably House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, have involved transforming it into a premium-support program.
Despite the marked shift in the president’s stance, House Republicans, in a press conference ahead of Thursday’s negotiations, repeated their steadfast refusal to allow the budget deal to include tax increases.
“We, as Republicans, are not going to support tax increases. It is counterintuitive to think that you can raise taxes in a sputtering economy,” said House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
“Everything’s on the table except raising taxes on the American people,” echoed Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio).
During another press conference at the Capitol later in the day, a select group of Senate Republicans reiterated their commitment to introduce a resolution in the Senate that includes a constitutional balanced-budget amendment with statutory spending caps.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned the White House and Congress that unless the debt ceiling is raised before the deadline of Aug. 2, the Treasury would have to default on its debt obligations for the first time in American history.
The White House has set its own deadline of July 22 for the end of negotiations, allowing enough time for the budget deal to work its way through the legislative process and pass both houses of Congress.
Although he characterized the negotiations in a post-meeting press conference as “very constructive,” Obama clarified that no breakthroughs had occurred so far. However, the president also stated his belief that a foundation for substantive progress had been established and that the hard work of negotiating a concrete deal would begin soon.
“I will reconvene congressional leaders here on Sunday with the expectation that at that point the parties will at least know where each other’s bottom lines are, and we’ll hopefully be in a position to then start engaging in the hard bargaining that’s necessary to get a deal done,” said Obama.
“I want to emphasize that nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to, and the parties are still far apart on a wide range of issues,” the president went on to say. “Everybody acknowledged that there’s going to be pain involved politically on all sides.”
In recent days, the president has signaled to the opposition a new willingness for deeper cuts in entitlement programs, including Social Security and Medicare, in return for Republican concessions on tax increases.
Instead of the previously oft-cited $2 trillion in savings, the White House is attempting to strike a more ambitious budget deal that amounts to between $3 trillion and $4 trillion in savings over the next decade. Such a deal, however, may not play well with rank-and-file legislators on both sides.
The White House has not offered any specific details as to how such cuts would be achieved, but previous plans to reform Social Security have centered on an adjusting the cost-of-living calculation upon which payments are based.
Ideas for reforming Medicare, most notably House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan, have involved transforming it into a premium-support program.
Despite the marked shift in the president’s stance, House Republicans, in a press conference ahead of Thursday’s negotiations, repeated their steadfast refusal to allow the budget deal to include tax increases.
“We, as Republicans, are not going to support tax increases. It is counterintuitive to think that you can raise taxes in a sputtering economy,” said House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
“Everything’s on the table except raising taxes on the American people,” echoed Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio).
During another press conference at the Capitol later in the day, a select group of Senate Republicans reiterated their commitment to introduce a resolution in the Senate that includes a constitutional balanced-budget amendment with statutory spending caps.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned the White House and Congress that unless the debt ceiling is raised before the deadline of Aug. 2, the Treasury would have to default on its debt obligations for the first time in American history.
The White House has set its own deadline of July 22 for the end of negotiations, allowing enough time for the budget deal to work its way through the legislative process and pass both houses of Congress.
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