–After Week Interlude, Key Budget Talks Will Resume Tuesday
–White House Budget Chief Says He Expects Talks To Take ‘Weeks’
–Senate Leaders Brace For Votes On Obama, Rep. Ryan Budget Plans
–Sen. McConnell: Dems Staging Votes For 2012 ‘Attack Ads’
–House Tax Chief Prepares $2.4 Trillion Debt Hike-Which He Opposes

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Vice President Biden will reconvene a fourth
round of budget talks Tuesday afternoon, but it seems likely that the
negotiations will extend well into next month.

Biden will convene the meeting with congressional leaders at 3 p.m.
on Capitol Hill. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently
staying at Blair House which has been the venue of the first three
rounds of talks.

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

Kyl, the Senate Republican representative to the Biden talks, said
last week that there is a general agreement in the talks on about $150
billion in savings.

This is well below the “trillions” in reductions that congressional
Republicans want as a condition for voting for an increase in the debt
ceiling this summer.

In a Monday evening speech, Lew, the White House budget director,
said the talks are going well but said it will take “weeks” more of work
before an agreement is within site.

The Senate is still expected to vote this week on budgets drafted
by House Republicans and President Obama.

But as an indication of the tactical purpose of the votes, it is
Senate Democrats who are pushing for a vote on the House Republican’s
fiscal year 2012 budget and Senate Republicans who are vowing to bring
up Obama’s FY’12 budget.

The Senate budget votes could occur as early as Wednesday

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday blasted Senate
Democratic leaders for staging the vote on the House Republican plan
developed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

In remarks on the Senate floor, McConnell said Democrats are trying
to focus on the unpopular features of Ryan’s plan, but are failing to
offer their own alternative.

“They are not even pretending to put principle over politics,” he
said, calling the Democratic failure to produce a budget a “complete and
total abdication of their responsibility as the majority party.”

He said Senate Democratic leaders are using the vote on the Ryan
budget as the basis for “attack ads” in the 2012 elections.

Ryan’s FY’12 budget resolution would cut spending by $5.8 trillion
over a decade compared to President Obama’s February budget. It would
reduce budget deficits by $1.6 trillion over a decade.

Democrats have criticized many features of Ryan’s plan and are
especially focused on his recommendation to fundamentally overhaul
Medicare.

Reid has called the Ryan budget a “Medicare killing plan.”

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said Tuesday that
he is preparing to introduce a “clean” $2.4 trillion debt ceiling
increase. He made it clear that he opposes a debt ceiling increase that
is not coupled with spending cuts and budget reforms.

Camp said the House could vote on such a “clean” debt ceiling
increase soon, presumably as a way of showing there is not support for
such a bill.

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

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