Obama, Boehner talk deficit

WASHINGTON – Congressional leaders will converge on the White House for today’s summit on deficit reduction, but the burden for advancing the talks and averting a fiscal crisis increasingly has fallen to two key negotiators: President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner.

As a critical deadline nears, top aides for Obama and Boehner, R-Ohio, have privately been exchanging budget proposals, a sign of efforts under way to work through key issues that have separated the two sides for more than two months.

Meanwhile, Obama and Boehner have held a pair of secret meetings at the White House, sessions coming after their golf outing last month. Even key party leaders were unaware of the most recent meeting, held Sunday.

The president and House speaker are seeking a deal on cutting federal deficits to win congressional approval for an increase in the nation’s debt limit. Failure to increase the government’s borrowing limit by Aug. 2 could trigger a financial crisis, experts warn.

The White House wants a deal before that and favors a larger package of $4 trillion in spending cuts and new revenue, which budget hawks say is needed to begin to reduce the nation’s record deficits and debt.

Boehner first met secretly with Obama at the White House two weeks ago, shortly after their June 18 golf outing. The White House has calculated that Boehner’s GOP-controlled House is where any deal must pass, as the Senate will rely primarily on votes from the Democratic majority to pass the debt ceiling increase.

The White House characterizes the talks with the GOP as “earnest,” despite outward displays of partisanship.

At the same time, the two sides remain far apart on the spending cuts and new tax revenue that would be needed for such a far-reaching deal.

Fiscal experts and most Democrats say budget cuts alone are not adequate to balance the government’s books. But Republicans have insisted that no new tax revenues be used for deficit reduction, repeatedly arguing that Washington has a “spending problem.”

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the majority leader, said Wednesday that Republicans would consider proposals by Democrats to close tax loopholes for the wealthy, a comment interpreted as partial GOP concession. But Cantor hastened to add that Republicans didn’t want to see any net increase in funds to the government.

“If the president wants to talk loopholes, we’ll be glad to talk loopholes,” Cantor said. “But, listen, we are not for any proposal that increases taxes, and any type of discussion should be coupled with offsetting tax cuts somewhere else.”