No word of progress after Obama meets with leaders (Updates)

President Barack Obama met at the White House for about an hour Saturday with House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders in an attempt to revive negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, after Boehner ended the negotiations with Obama Friday night.

Saturday's meeting ended with no announcement of any accord, or an agreement to keep bargaining, with less than two weeks left to avert a default on government bonds.

But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement after Saturday's meeting in which he said congressional leaders were designing new legislation to head off a default.

DesperateInRI wrote:

President Barack Obama met at the White House for about an hour Saturday with House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders in an attempt to revive negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, after Boehner ended the negotiations with Obama Friday night.

Saturday's meeting ended with no announcement of any accord, or an agreement to keep bargaining, with less than two weeks left to avert a default on government bonds.

But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement after Saturday's meeting in which he said congressional leaders were designing new legislation to head off a default.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43864749/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

Today 8:32 PM Reid: GOP Unwillingness To Compromise Pushing Us To 'Brink Of Default'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued the following statement on Saturday night:

“I am deeply disappointed in the status of negotiations with my Republican colleagues. I have said repeatedly, including last night and again today, that I will not support any agreement that fails to raise the debt ceiling though the end of 2012. Anything less than that will fail to provide the certainty that the markets – and the world – are looking for, risking an immediate downgrade of America’s credit rating. This would force a tax increase on all Americans, and drain their savings funds and retirement plans as well. “I hope that Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell will reconsider their intransigence. Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default on the full faith and credit of the United States. We have run out of time for politics. Now is the time for cooperation.”

Debt ceiling negotiators think they've hit on a solution to address the debt ceiling impasse and the public's unwillingness to let go of benefits such as Medicare and Social Security that have been earned over a lifetime of work: Create a new Congress.

This "Super Congress," composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn't mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers. Under a plan put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his counterpart Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), legislation to lift the debt ceiling would be accompanied by the creation of a 12-member panel made up of 12 lawmakers -- six from each chamber and six from each party.

Legislation approved by the Super Congress -- which some on Capitol Hill are calling the "super committee" -- would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn't be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who'd have the ability only to cast an up or down vote.

lendmeflight2 wrote:You also must remember that raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with cutting spend OR raising taxes. They should just raise it just like they always have before. I think that this mentality is working toward the republicans advantage and I can't believe they haven't thought of this yet. A lot of Americans are starting to think that to raise the debt ceiling we HAVE to either raise taxes or cut spending. So if the republicans ask America would they rather cut spending or raise taxes nearly everyone would say to cut spending.

The debt ceiling should be raised with a one sentence bill.

As Washington scrambles Sunday to avert default, the deficit of trust among leaders in Congress is becoming almost more important than the debt numbers themselves.

Having broken off talks Friday with the White House, Speaker John Boehner is trying to achieve much of the same $3 trillion package in a two-stage process tied to raising the debt ceiling in increments of $900 billion first and then about $1.6 trillion next year. Boehner’s goal is to show his conservative rank and file that he has locked in savings at each step, but the process is so tilted against Democrats it risks blowing up in the Republicans’ face — with huge unknown consequences for both parties and the nation.

MaryKay wrote:

lendmeflight2 wrote:You also must remember that raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with cutting spend OR raising taxes. They should just raise it just like they always have before. I think that this mentality is working toward the republicans advantage and I can't believe they haven't thought of this yet. A lot of Americans are starting to think that to raise the debt ceiling we HAVE to either raise taxes or cut spending. So if the republicans ask America would they rather cut spending or raise taxes nearly everyone would say to cut spending.

The debt ceiling should be raised with a one sentence bill.

As it always has been. It's a totally seperate issue. I for you don't want a rushed through bill with cuts and taxes that we know will not be current a year from now. Raise the ceiling and then get back to the other issues that need addressing which should be done in a properly thought out way. Give the people in the country some peace of mind for a bit.

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:

Asian markets? They are on their own. A Republican source tells ABC News negotiators do not expect to have a deal or even the framework of a deal on the debt ceiling by 4 p.m. today, as House Speaker John Boehner had said he wanted to steady jittery Asian markets when they open.

In fact, the source says a deal today is now looking unlikely.

The principals are speaking over the phone while the staffs work on the numbers. Congressional Democrats and Republicans continue to try to hash out a compromise, but they are not there yet.

Separately, the source says that the big "grand bargain" now looks, once again, to be "pretty dead" -- not buried yet, but not really breathing either. Despite the positive comments by Boehner and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this morning, the large deficit reduction plan seems to be too much, too late to accomplish by the Aug. 2 deadline.

"A deal is still elusive," said one top House Republican.

Today 6:42 PM U.S. Stock Futures Down
BreakingNews @ BreakingNews : U.S. stock futures down more than 100 points Sunday night as lawmakers failed to reach debt agreement - @MarketWatch

Today 5:35 PM House Republicans, Senate Dems Ready Emergency Fallback Plans

The AP reports:

With bipartisan debt-limit talks deadlocked, House Republicans and Senate Democrats readied rival emergency fallback plans Sunday in hopes of reassuring world financial markets the U.S. government will avoid an unprecedented default.

Republicans said Speaker John Boehner had legislation under consideration to raise the nation's debt limit by $1 trillion and enact slightly more in federal spending cuts, with the promise of additional progress on both sides of the ledger if Congress can agree.

Across the Capitol, Democratic officials said Majority Leader Harry Reid was at work on legislation to raise the government's debt limit by $2.4 trillion – enough to assure no recurrence of the current crisis until 2013 – and reduce spending by slightly more. They said that plan envisioned no higher taxes.

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama will veto any plan that fails to raise the U.S. debt ceiling through 2013, his chief of staff, William Daley, said Sunday.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats failed to reach agreement by Sunday afternoon. Even worse, congressional leaders appeared to moving independently on their own to come up with competing plans to handle the debt and raise the debt ceiling, without only eight days until the United States defaults, Politico reported.