Lawmakers Renew Push to Reach Deal on Cutting Deficit (Boehner: Deal in Place To Cut $3-4 Trillion)

New york Times ^ | July 23, 2011 | CARL HULSE and JACKIE CALMES

[lbryce]

Hoping to reassure markets in the wake of an angry breakdown in the federal budget negotiations, Congressional leaders raced Saturday to reach a new deficit-reduction agreement that Speaker John A. Boehner told colleagues could cut $3 trillion to $4 trillion in spending over 10 years.

“We are working, and I’m confident there will be resolution,” Mr. Boehner told fellow House Republicans on an afternoon conference call, according to participants. “There has to be.”

Mr. Boehner’s comments came a little more than a week before the federal government risks defaulting on its debts, a fate that could be avoided if Congress agrees to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

The speaker, who abruptly broke off budget talks with President Obama on Friday evening, said he hoped the plan could be finished within 24 hours. He said the savings would most likely be achieved in two stages and would meet Republican fiscal demands that have led to a Congressional cliffhanger on the debt limit.

He spoke with his colleagues after Congressional leaders met at the White House on Saturday morning at the request of Mr. Obama. The meeting broke up without resolution just before noon, after about an hour of discussion.

Lawmakers and top aides said privately that despite the White House session, the search for a solution was now focused on Capitol Hill, where senior advisers gathered Saturday afternoon to exchange ideas on a plan that could get the go-ahead from top members of Congress.

In a statement after the White House session, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, indicated that he and his leadership counterparts were trying to devise a fallback measure to assure the borrowing ceiling was raised in time.

[chooseascreennamepat]

Do you really want to risk that?>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
YES! BRING IT!

You define the media “right wing radical”.

Thanks, idiot!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks lbryce.

...could cut $3 trillion to $4 trillion in spending over 10 years...