–Vice President Biden Schedules Three Rounds of Budget Talks Next Week
–White House, Speaker Boehner Seek Budget Deal By Late June, Early July
–Senate’s ‘Gang of Six’ Seeks Plan To Cut Deficit By $4.7T Over Decade

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – With the economy struggling, the stock market
plunging, and the debt limit deadline nearing, Vice President Joe Biden
is expected to sharply accelerate the pace of budget talks he has been
hosting since early in the spring.

Biden held the sixth round of budget talks Thursday and lawmakers
left the session saying the pace of the talks will accelerate sharply
next week.

Biden is expected to meet with lawmakers Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday next week.

The Biden talks are exploring a deficit reduction package that can
be developed to coincide with this summer’s vote on debt ceiling
legislation.

Biden is negotiating with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Senate
Minority Whip Jon Kyl, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Dan
Inouye, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Assistant House
Minority Leader Jim Clyburn and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat
on the House Budget Committee.

The administration is represented by Biden, Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner, White House budget director Jack Lew and the director
of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling.

Congressional Republicans have said they want a package of
“trillions” in spending reductions as a condition for voting to increase
the debt ceiling this summer.

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner said that it will be
important to forge a deficit reduction agreement by the end of June.

“This really need to be done over the next month, if we’re serious
about no brinksmanship and no rattling investors,” Boehner said on June
1, adding that President Obama appears to have the same deadline in
mind.

“He understands that we need this finished over the next month,”
Boehner said.

White House officials have signalled they would like a budget
package ready by the July 4th recess, so it could be approved by
Congress well before the August 2nd deadline for increasing the debt
ceiling that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says is still binding.

Biden has said the talks have identified potentially large budget
savings.

“I think we’re in a position where we’ll be able to get to well
above a trillion dollars pretty quick in terms of what would be a
downpayment on the process,” he said a few weeks ago.

Biden added he’s “confident” that there will be an agreement on a
“relatively large number” of budget savings which will be a
“downpayment” on a larger package of $4 trillion in budget savings.

The Vice President said the final agreement will have to include
tax changes, a topic that was discussed during the talks Thursday.

Cantor, the House Majority Leader, repeated Thursday that
congressional Republicans don’t think tax increases would help America’s
fiscal situation or overall economic health.

“We believe that much of the problem surrounding the lack of job
creation and growth in this country has to do with the fact that there
isn’t a credible plan to manage down the debt and deficit in this
country,” he said.

While the Biden talks go forward, the Senate’s so-called “Gang of
Six” continues to work on a deficit reduction plan, even though one of
their members, Sen. Tom Coburn, has at least temporarily left the talks.

The remaining members of the bipartisan group are working on a ten
year plan to cut the deficit by about $4.7 trillion, with savings coming
from discretionary spending cuts, revenue increases and entitlement
reforms.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, who is also part of
the Gang of Six, said the bipartisan group outlined its fiscal blueprint
to about 20 senators this week to gauge their reaction.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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