–Vice President Expected To Hold Up To Four Budget Talks This Week
–Congressional Budget Office To Release Long-Term Fiscal Report Weds
–Tsy’s Geithner To Testify On Small Business Issues Wednesday AM
–Senate Finance Panel To Holding Hearing On Medicaid, Medicare
–Senate’s Gang of Six Continues To Work For Broader Plan

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to
host up to four meetings with congressional leaders this week as efforts
intensify to craft a deficit reduction package that could be linked to
debt ceiling legislation.

The first session of the budget talks this week is expected to be
Tuesday.

After concluding his last meeting with lawmakers last Thursday
evening, Biden said he remains hopeful that a substantial budget
agreement can be secured.

“Everyone wants an agreement. There’s no principal in that room
that doesn’t want to get an agreement that bends the curve on long-term
debt and that is sufficiently realistic to get us to $4 trillion over a
decade or so in terms of (deficit) reduction,” Biden said Thursday as he
left the budget negotiations.

Biden has said he wants a broad budget agreement reached by the end
of June so it can be presented to President Obama and congressional
leaders by July 4th.

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

The U.S. has already reached its $14.29 trillion debt ceiling.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said that Congress must pass
legislation increasing the debt ceiling by August 2.

If a deficit reduction agreement is reached in principle by late
June or early July, staffers would probably spend the next week or so
putting it into legislative language so the House and Senate could vote
on it by late July.

Biden has been joined in the budget talks by 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
Geithner, White House budget director Jack Lew and the director of the
National Economic Council Gene Sperling.

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

While the Biden talks go forward, the Senate’s so-called “Gang of
Six” continues to work on a deficit reduction plan. The bipartisan group
of senators, which is now down to five members after the departure of
Sen. Tom Coburn, is expected to soon release a ten year plan to cut the
deficit by about $4.5 trillion. Savings are expected to come from
discretionary spending cuts, revenue increases and entitlement reforms.

In other matters this week, Secretary Geithner will testify
Wednesday at 10 a.m. to the House Small Business Committee on the
availability of credit to small businesses.

The Congressional Budget Office Wednesday will release at 10 a.m.
its annual report on the U.S.’s long-term fiscal challenges. The report
is expected to show, as past reports have, that current spending and tax
policies, if continued, will lead to ruinous budget deficits and soaring
debt levels.

Doug Elmendorf, the director of the CBO, will testify on this
report Thursday at 10 a.m. to the House Budget Committee.

A House Ways and Means subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday at
10 a.m. on how American tax reform could boost foreign investment in the
U.S..

The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing Thursday at 10
a.m. on the linkage between Medicaid and Medicare reform and deficit
reduction.

The full House this week is expected to consider patent reform
legislation as well as the $650 billion defense appropriations bill for
the 2012 fiscal year.

The Senate will vote Tuesday on the nomination of Leon Panetta to
be the Secretary of Defense. It will also vote on a motion to end debate
on a bill that authorizes various economic development programs. The
Senate may also begin debate on a bill that would eliminate some Senate
confirmation votes on lower ranking executive branch appointments.

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

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