In Washington, a Push for a Plan to Raise the Debt Limit
Administration officials and lawmakers were <a href="http://www.trading666.com/T-shirt-polo-men-t-shirt-f2-61-c3-89.html"><strong>wholesale fashion polo men t-shirt online from china </strong></a> expected to meet throughout the day to consider plans for reducing the budget deficit ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt limit. Despite the impasse over major elements of a deficit reduction deal, leaders in both parties said they were determined to make public a new compromise on Sunday afternoon, before the opening of financial markets in Asia, to reassure investors there. The clock is ticking. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said he hoped lawmakers would agree on a deal on Sunday so that Congress could vote before Aug. 2. “They need to get this process moving in the House by Monday night,” Mr. Geithner said on the ABC News program “This Week.” “To achieve that deadline, they need to have a framework that they know with complete confidence will pass both houses of Congress that is acceptable to the president.” Speaker John A. Boehner, in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” said that although he walked out of talks on Friday, “my last offer is still out there; I’ve never taken my last offer off the table.” He said that plan included some 800 billion in new <a href="www.trading666.com"><strong>wholesale Cheap Replica Handbags from china </strong></a> revenues as well as significant spending cuts. Still, Mr. Boehner said he and his Republican colleagues were prepared to push through their own deficit reduction package if Congressional leaders failed to produce a bipartisan plan by Sunday afternoon. “The preferable path would be a bipartisan plan that involves all the leaders, but it is too early to decide whether that’s possible,” Mr. Boehner said. “If that’s not possible, I and my Republican colleagues in the House are prepared to move on our own.” Mr. Boehner said he opposed the president’s demand that the plan take the country past the 2012 elections, a position that the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, reiterated on Sunday. Appearing on the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” Mr. Daley said that world markets and the American economy could continue with the uncertainty brought on by a short-term extension of the debt ceiling. “The president believes that we must get this uncertainty out of the system,” he said. He added that Mr. Obama would veto any package that did not include <a href="http://www.trading666.com/others-brand-cigarettes-f2-66.html"><strong>wholesale newport box shorts cigarettes online </strong></a> a long-term remedy. But — in a demonstration of political discussion’s intractable nature — Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, said just minutes later on the same program that Mr. Daley’s remarks were “a ridiculous position, because that’s what he’s going to get presented with.” Meanwhile, Mr. Geithner suggested that the so-called grand bargain — declared dead on Friday after talks collapsed between Mr. Boehner and Mr. Obama — might be showing signs of life. “They are talking again,” Mr. Geithner said on “This Week.” “They’ve been in touch throughout this time.” Both Mr. Geithner and Mr. Daley said that at the end of the day, Congress would figure out a way to avoid default of the American debt. “The leaders of Congress have said unequivocally that we will meet our obligations,” Mr. Geithner said. Mr. Daley acknowledged, however, that both sides are at the brink: “We are now getting to a point where markets around the world will question whether the political system can come together and compromise for the good of the <a href="http://www.casualphorum.com/viewtopic.php?p=1843292#1843292"><strong>CNY/HKD</strong></a> country.” On Saturday, Congressional leaders clashed as they tried to reach an agreement that Mr. 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 in an afternoon conference call, according to participants. “There has to be.” An hourlong Saturday meeting in Mr. Boehner’s Capitol suite was followed by pessimistic assessments of the state of negotiations from the two top Congressional Democrats, Senator Harry Reid and Representative Nancy Pelosi. They accused Republicans of refusing to give ground on how the federal debt limit would be raised.
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