–House Majority Leader: ‘Trying To Get…Trillions In Savings’
–Biden Talks ‘Covering Every Area of Spending’
–Talks Covering Entitlements, Discretionary Spending

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday
evening that the budget talks led by Vice President Biden are “covering
every type of spending program there is,” adding the goal is still to
find “trillions of dollars of savings.”

“We’re trying to get there,” Cantor told reporters after he left
the two hour meeting with Biden and other negotiators.

Cantor said he expects the pace of the talks to continue to
intensify. The Biden group met three times this week and will meet at
least that much next week, Cantor said, adding it’s possible they will
hold a fourth meeting next week.

“We are doing all that we set out to do. We’re continuing to push
forward to the kind of goals set out by the Speaker and others,” he
said.

House Speaker John Boehner has said that a package of spending
savings should equal or exceed the size of the debt ceiling increase.

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 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 Tim
Geithner, White House budget director Jack Lew and the director of the
National Economic Council Gene Sperling.

Boehner has said it’s important to forge a deficit reduction
agreement by the end of June so a vote on debt ceiling legislation can
occur well before the August 2 deadline that Treasury has set.

Kyl, the Senate Minority Whip, told reporters last week that
Republicans want a package of more than $2.4 trillion in savings over a
decade or more as a condition for increasing the debt ceiling by that
same amount.

Cantor has said the Biden talks are focused on securing savings
over the ten year budget window, but added that additional savings
beyond this window would be very positive.

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

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