Desperate to show enough progress to head off a plunge in stock prices when Asian markets open ahead of the U.S. workweek.Republicans sought as much as $4 trillion in deficit cuts over a decade as a condition for raising the nation's debt limit.
"Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default. ... We have run out of time for politics," he said in a sharply worded statement.But after hours of staff negotiations followed by a meeting of Congress' top four leaders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused GOP leaders of intransigence, adding he would not accept anything less than a deal that raised the debt limit through 2012.President Obama met earlier in the day with the Republican and Democratic leaders - but only briefly- the day after House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, abruptly broke off his own once-promising compromise talks with the White House.Another $1.4 trillion in additional borrowing authority would be needed to satisfy Obama's demand that any deal extend into 2013.
More urgently, Boehner told rank-and-file Republicans in a conference call he hoped to be able to announce a "viable framework for progress" by 4 p.m. EDT today, before the stock markets open in Japan and elsewhere in Asia, according to two participants.Liberal Democrats are opposed to cuts in Medicare and Social Security, while Obama hopes to use the negotiations to appeal to voters who want big cuts in federal deficits.
