Boehner Backs Lesser Debt Reduction Deal

(Newsroom America) -- House Speaker John Boehner abandoned efforts Saturday night to strike a long-range deficit reduction deal with the White House, telling President Barack Obama that they would have to settle for one about half that size because it was the only politically viable option to keeping the government out of default.

Initially, Boehner had insisted on a plan that would cut $4 trillion over 10 years, but that fell apart on Obama's continued insistence that such a package would have to include tax hikes, a point Boehner and Republicans won't concede.

"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," said Boehner in a statement, 24 hours before a scheduled debt reduction meeting at the White House is set to begin.

As a result, Boehner said, "I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."

Instead, the speaker will push for a deal that cuts about $2.4 trillion over the same period, a plan that was under consideration in bipartisan budget talks led by Vice President Joe Biden that eventually fell apart last month.

The larger deal would have required both parties to make politically difficult sacrifices. Democrats were demanding $800 billion in new taxes, something that fiscally conservative Republicans found hard to accept, while Republicans sought cuts to Medicare and Social Security, which are favorite programs for Democrats, the Washington Post reported.

The paper said Obama appeared willing to go that route, but in the end aides to Boehner said he couldn't allow Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

That has led to accusations from Democrats that Republicans are only interested in preserving tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest earners.

"We cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts," White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement. "We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree."

Conservatives countered that, pointing out that the highest earners already pay the lion's share of income taxes.

Still, both sides will meet as scheduled Sunday at the White House, where Obama will push for a deal that he believes will eventually stabilize the nation's mounting debt. But if no deal is reached, Republicans have said they won't vote to authorize raising the government's debt ceiling, which is currently set at $14.3 trillion.

If no deal is reached by Aug. 2, the nation could default on some of its obligations, and both sides have said they don't want to see that happen.

© 2010 Newsroom America.

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