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 The exit of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor from the talks on
Thursday means the most difficult decisions have been kicked
upstairs to GOP House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and President Barack Obama. The Biden-led group had made solid progress in weeks
of negotiations but was at an impasse over taxes.
Cantor, R-Va., said that the Republican-dominated House simply won't
support tax increases and that it's time for Obama to weigh in
directly because Biden and Democrats were insisting on tax
increases. Democrats said it's only fair to blend in additional
revenues from closing tax breaks to balance trillions of dollars in
spending cuts.
It had long been assumed that the Biden group would set the stage
for more decisive talks involving Obama and Boehner. As a result,
Cantor's move was interpreted as trying to jump-start the talks
rather than blow them up — a view shared by Cantor himself.
"The purpose here is to alter the dynamic," Cantor said.
In fact, Cantor's withdrawal came after Boehner had already made a
trek to the White House — in a secret meeting Wednesday night that
followed up on a golf outing over the weekend. For his part, Cantor
didn't inform Boehner of his decision to leave the talks until
Thursday, shortly before the news broke, said a GOP official
familiar with the situation. The official required anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the information.
The White House sought to put a positive spin on developments.
"As all of us at the table said at the outset, the goal of these
talks was to report our findings back to our respective leaders,"
Biden said in a statement. "The next phase is in the hands of those
leaders, who need to determine the scope of an agreement that can
tackle the problem and attract bipartisan support. For now the talks
are in abeyance as we await that guidance."
The Senate's Republican negotiator, Jon Kyl of Arizona, also exited
the talks.
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 For his part, Cantor said the secretive Biden-led talks had
"established a blueprint" for agreement on significant cuts in
spending.
One of the byproducts of Cantor's departure was to provide an
opportunity for partisans on all sides to make statements at odds
with the positions they may have to take to achieve a deal.
Democrats insist that at least some new revenues are needed — both
to soften spending cuts and to line up the Democratic votes needed
to pass the measure.
"It will take Democratic votes to pass any debt-ceiling agreement,"
said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "As a result, certain things are
going to have to be true. We cannot make cuts to Medicare benefits.
We have to allow for revenues like wasteful subsidies for ethanol
and oil companies. And we have to do something on jobs."
"President Obama needs to decide between his goal of higher taxes or
a bipartisan plan to address our deficit," said Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "He can't have both."
As for Democratic demands for new deficit-financed "jobs"
initiatives, McConnell scoffed: "What planet are they on?"
Cantor said that plenty of progress has been made in identifying
trillions of dollars in potential spending cuts to accompany
legislation to raise the $14.3 trillion cap on the government's
ability to borrow money. Passage of the legislation this summer is
necessary to meet the government's obligations to holders of U.S.
Treasurys. The alternative is a market-shaking, first-ever default
on U.S. obligations.
[Associated
Press; By ANDREW TAYLOR]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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