Gerald
07-07-11, 01:34 PM
WASHINGTON — President Obama said on Thursday that budget negotiations at the White House had been “very constructive,” though the two sides “were still far apart on a wide range of issues.”
He said that the talks would continue into the weekend, and that Congressional leaders would meet with him again on Sunday.
At the weekend session, the president said, he hoped that Democrats and Republicans would “at least know where each other’s bottom lines are,” allowing them to enter critical bargaining over a multitrillion-dollar package that would reduce the deficit and spare the federal government from defaulting on its debts.
Mr. Obama, appearing at the White House after meeting with Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republican and Democratic leaders, said both sides had pledged to come to an agreement before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the government will reach a debt ceiling that will make further borrowing impossible.
“Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” Mr. Obama said of the substance of the talks, which are ranging across entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as tax-related measures like the closing of loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate interests.
“People were frank,” Mr. Obama said. “We discussed the various options that are available to us.”
The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenue as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in social programs.
At a news conference before the meeting, Mr. Boehner, of Ohio, told reporters that “everything’s on the table, except raising taxes” on the American people, and he added that a tax overhaul that would close breaks and lower rates was part of the discussion.
Mr. Boehner also said that changes were needed in benefit programs for the poor and elderly to ensure their long-term viability.
“We know the entitlement programs are important programs for tens of millions of Americans,” Mr. Boehner said, “but we also know that if there are not reforms, that they won’t exist in the future.”
The intensifying negotiations between the president and the speaker have Congressional Democrats growing anxious, worried they will be asked to accept a deal that is too heavily tilted toward Republican efforts and produces too little new revenue relative to the magnitude of the cuts.
Congressional Democrats said they were caught off guard by the weekend White House visit of Mr. Boehner, and Senate Democrats raised concerns at a private party luncheon on Wednesday.
House Democrats have their own fears about the negotiations, which they expressed in an hourlong meeting Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
“Depending on what they decide to recommend, they may not have Democrats,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in an interview. “I think it is a risky thing for the White House to basically take the bet that we can be presented with something at the last minute and we will go for it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/politics/08fiscal.html?_r=1&hp
Note: July 7 2011
He said that the talks would continue into the weekend, and that Congressional leaders would meet with him again on Sunday.
At the weekend session, the president said, he hoped that Democrats and Republicans would “at least know where each other’s bottom lines are,” allowing them to enter critical bargaining over a multitrillion-dollar package that would reduce the deficit and spare the federal government from defaulting on its debts.
Mr. Obama, appearing at the White House after meeting with Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republican and Democratic leaders, said both sides had pledged to come to an agreement before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the government will reach a debt ceiling that will make further borrowing impossible.
“Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” Mr. Obama said of the substance of the talks, which are ranging across entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, as well as tax-related measures like the closing of loopholes and tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate interests.
“People were frank,” Mr. Obama said. “We discussed the various options that are available to us.”
The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenue as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in social programs.
At a news conference before the meeting, Mr. Boehner, of Ohio, told reporters that “everything’s on the table, except raising taxes” on the American people, and he added that a tax overhaul that would close breaks and lower rates was part of the discussion.
Mr. Boehner also said that changes were needed in benefit programs for the poor and elderly to ensure their long-term viability.
“We know the entitlement programs are important programs for tens of millions of Americans,” Mr. Boehner said, “but we also know that if there are not reforms, that they won’t exist in the future.”
The intensifying negotiations between the president and the speaker have Congressional Democrats growing anxious, worried they will be asked to accept a deal that is too heavily tilted toward Republican efforts and produces too little new revenue relative to the magnitude of the cuts.
Congressional Democrats said they were caught off guard by the weekend White House visit of Mr. Boehner, and Senate Democrats raised concerns at a private party luncheon on Wednesday.
House Democrats have their own fears about the negotiations, which they expressed in an hourlong meeting Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner.
“Depending on what they decide to recommend, they may not have Democrats,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in an interview. “I think it is a risky thing for the White House to basically take the bet that we can be presented with something at the last minute and we will go for it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/us/politics/08fiscal.html?_r=1&hp
Note: July 7 2011