GOP shows flexibility in budget talks

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Republicans showed new signs of flexibility to break a budget impasse Wednesday, but the White House raised the ante — pushing for more deficit reduction and taking a pugnacious tone, casting the GOP as defenders of corporate tax giveaways.

The repositioning by both sides appeared to open new compromise possibilities a day before President Barack Obama was set to host the bipartisan congressional leadership for new talks on the budget. The secret negotiations were gaining new urgency because they are tied to an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government’s borrowing authority.

First, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declared he was open to closing tax loopholes that the White House says are wasteful and ineffective and that would generate some money toward reducing deficits over the long term.

Democratic officials, in turn, said President Barack Obama wants far more deficit reduction than the $2 trillion over 10 years that for weeks has been the target for budget negotiators. Obama in April proposed deficit reduction of $4 trillion over 12 years, and White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that goal remained “something to aspire to.”

But even as White House officials expressed confidence that negotiations ultimately would succeed, Obama took a combative approach ahead of today’s meeting.

“The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate-jet owners or oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars,” Obama said during a town hall that featured questions posed through the online social network Twitter.