Tea party takes its turn in debt battle

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House weighed in with a veto threat today against a tea party-backed plan to let the government borrow another $2.4 trillion, a measure conditioned on big and immediate spending cuts and adoption by Congress of a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget.

At the same time, President Barack Obama said the two sides are "making progress" after a series of back-channel conversations with Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, with whom Obama met on Sunday morning.

Boehner called the veto threat "unfortunate," and in a statement today said Obama's threat "should make clear that the issue is not congressional inaction, but rather the President's unwillingness to cut spending and restrain the future growth of our government."

"If we are going to raise the debt limit and avoid default, the White House must be willing to demonstrate more courage than we have seen to date," Boehner said.

A Boehner aide said the "cut, cap and balance" plan is still "the best path forward" and declined to characterize the hush-hush talks with Obama. Another spokesman, Brendan Buck, said "there is nothing to report in terms of an agreement or progress."