“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama summoned top Democratic
lawmakers back to the White House Wednesday to resume negotiations
on averting a potentially crippling government default, as
attention focused on a new bipartisan budget plan emerging in the
Senate.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The White House also indicated Obama would be willing to sign a
short-term debt limit increase – something he’s opposed – if it’s
merely a stop-gap measure to allow time for a broader plan to get
into place, something that likely couldn’t be finished by the Aug.
2 deadline to increase the government’s borrowing limit.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Obama’s meeting with House and Senate Democratic leaders, planned
for mid-afternoon Wednesday, marked a partial resumption of talks
that ended last week after five days straight of Obama huddling
with lawmakers from both parties, with little progress to show for
it. But the announcement Tuesday of a possible deal by the Senate
“Gang of Six” was seized on by Obama as a possible breakthrough.
Now the job ahead for the president, if he is to build momentum
behind the plan, includes selling members of his own party on the
cuts to entitlement programs that it embraces.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“We are in the 11th hour,” said White House press secretary Jay
Carney, repeating what Obama had said Wednesday. “We need to meet,
talk, consult and narrow down in fairly short order what train
we’re riding into the station.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Carney also indicated that the president would be willing to
support a short-term extension as a stop-gap measure. Carney said
Obama would not support a short-term extension “absent an agreement
on a larger deal.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The plan by the Gang of Six is far too complicated and contentious
to advance before the Aug. 2 deadline to avoid a default that
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other experts warn would
roil the markets, drive up interest rates and threaten to take the
country back into a recession. But the plan’s authors clearly hope
it could serve as a template for a “grand bargain” later in the
year that could erase perhaps $4 trillion from the deficit over the
coming decade.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
It includes tax hikes on some that are opposed by Republicans and
cuts to Medicare and other entitlements that many Democrats are
against.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” rel=”item-license” name=
“50d1dcf6-6432-4ab5-8bed-361d24cc272c” href=
“http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEBT_SHOWDOWN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-20-13-16-30#50d1dcf6-6432-4ab5-8bed-361d24cc272c”> © 2011 The
Associated Press may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. “http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy”>Privacy
Policy
