Bipartisan talks between the White House and Congress on how best to lower he nation’s ballooning debt kicked off Thursday, with participants saying they are optimistic about a compromise, but offering few details.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden met with six members of Congress - four Democrats and two Republicans - for more than two hours at the Blair House to discuss ways to cut the budget and to ensure the nation doesn’t exceed its current debt limit.
Mr. Biden said the group had a “productive first meeting” and would meet again Tuesday.
Republicans have pushed for spending cuts to accompany an increase of the debt ceiling - the government’s legal limit on how much it can borrow to pay for its operations. Democrats are opposed to a Medicare overhaul and instead have pushed to end tax breaks to corporations and big oil companies.
The federal government is teetering dangerously close to hitting the debt ceiling, which was last raised to $14.294 trillion in February 2010. Exceeding the limit could lead to the U.S. defaulting on its loans, a scenario that would damage the nation’s credit rating and could trigger another financial crisis.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said this week he can juggle accounts until Aug. 2 before hitting the debt ceiling.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, one of the six members of Congress chosen by their party leaders to participate in the negotiations with Mr. Biden, said after the meeting that “there is general agreement [among the group] that things have to change, and that we need to see reform and spending cuts.”
But the Virginia Republican warned the GOP-controlled House wouldn’t tolerate any deal that included tax increases.
“The spirit of the meeting was that [Democrats] understood where we were coming from, and understood that you cannot sustain a scenario in which the government is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends,” he said.
A majority sticking point is Medicare. Republicans have insisted the talks include a proposed GOP overhaul of the government-sponsored health insurance plan that is part of House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s 2012 budget blueprint.
“I have not taken Medicare off the table,” Mr. Cantor said.
But the majority leader stopped short of an outright demand that Medicare reform be included in a final budget legislation.
“The reality is, this president has excoriated our budget plan and the Medicare proposal in the plan, and I certainly would like to see what their proposals are,” Mr. Cantor said.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, echoed Mr. Cantor’s position.
“When it comes to increasing the debt limit and the need to have reductions in spending, nothing is off the table except raising taxes,” said Mr. Boehner when speaking with reporters Thursday.
The other five negotiators generally were tight-lipped about the meeting. The group included Sens. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii and Max Baucus of Montana, and Rep. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, all Democrats, and Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said that entitlement programs can’t be the only budget items targeted for spending cuts.
“We can save a lot of money by looking at domestic discretionary spending, military spending and doing a better job of making the tax system more fair,” said Mr. Reid Thursday on the Senate floor. “We give more in tax breaks than we [receive] as revenue to this country. We’ve got to change all this.”
• Sean Lengell can be reached at slengell@washingtontimes.com.
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