Boehner says US must be strong partner for Israel (AP)

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner says the U.S. commitment to Israel should be stronger now as the American ally faces challenges to its existence in the volatile Middle East.

In an address Sunday to the Jewish National Fund conference in Cincinnati, the Ohio Republican dismissed suggestions that Israel has isolated itself and he argued that the Jewish state stands above others as the "one true beacon of freedom and opportunity" in the region.

The U.S., he said, must stand by Israel's side "not just as a broker or observer — but as a strong partner and reliable ally."

A text of Boehner's address was made available in advance.

Boehner's remarks come on the eve of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York, which is shaping up as a difficult diplomatic period for Israel.

The Palestinian Authority intends to seek recognition of statehood despite a threat of a U.S. veto in the Security Council and the strong objections of the United States and Israel.

Boehner also noted that the U.N. will highlight the Durban Declaration, viewed by many as an anti-Semitic statement, and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a foe of Israel, will address the General Assembly.

Boehner's speech comes amid renewed attention to President Barack Obama's policies toward Israel. Republicans say the president isn't forceful enough on behalf of Israel, and political questions have been raised on whether the GOP can capitalize on the discontent and make inroads with Jewish voters.

Last Tuesday, Republican Bob Turner scored a surprising win in a historically Democratic New York congressional district in part because of complaints about Obama's Mideast policies. The district also has a large concentration of Orthodox Jews.

In May, Obama called for Israel's 1967 borders with mutually agreed land swaps to serve as the starting point in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. That proposal was rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Boehner, in his speech, did not mention Obama, but did recall his invitation to Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, also in May, and the message the prime minister delivered.

"The American people deserved to hear from him — and Washington, quite frankly, needed to hear what he had to say," Boehner said. "I invite the people in this room — and anyone as concerned as I am about the future of Israel — to speak out. Washington needs to hear from you, too."

Boehner said Israel has shown that it seeks "nothing more than peace ... a peace agreed to by the two states and only the two states." The speaker said Netanyahu understands that peace will require compromise.

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Boehner: House will compromise on debt limit (AP)

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner predicted Thursday that a majority of House Republicans will end up supporting some kind of compromise as the Senate began debating a House-passed effort to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to conservative demands for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called up the measure to placate Republicans demanding a vote. But he said it "doesn't have one chance in a million of passing the Senate."

At a news conference, Boehner told reporters, "Frankly, I think it would be irresponsible on behalf of the Congress and the president not to be looking at back-up strategies for how to solve this problem."

"At the end of the day, we have a responsibility to act," the Ohio Republican said.

Asked whether GOP lawmakers supporting the House's "cut, cap and balance" debt limit measure would be unwilling to ultimately compromise, Boehner said, "I'm sure we've got some members who believe that, but I do not believe that would be anywhere close to the majority."

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney reported little progress from private meetings President Barack Obama held Wednesday with Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and separately with congressional Democratic leaders.

"There is no deal, we are not close to a deal," Carney said.

"There is no progress to report but we continue to work on getting the most significant deficit reduction package possible because we think it's the right thing for the economy," he said.

Boehner's talk of possible accommodation in the protracted political stalemate over federal budget policy came as the Senate took up the tea party-backed House legislation Thursday. It ties an increase in the government's borrowing authority to a series of conservative demands, including immediate spending cuts and a constitutional balanced budget amendment.

Democrats argue that the so-called "cut, cap and balance" measure would impose untenable spending restraints and set spending levels, as a percentage of the overall economy, on par with the mid-1960s — before the advent of Medicare and automatic Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.

The development Thursday reflected the reality that there's more talk than progress as official Washington wrangles daily over finding a way out of a debt dilemma that has the government sliding inexorably toward a first-ever default on its financial obligations.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday the legislation now before his chamber would be an opportunity for lawmakers to "go on record in support of balancing our books or against it." He urged Democrats to join GOP senators in backing it.

Democrats are expected to kill the measure — which they say would demand debilitating cuts to Medicare — in a vote on Saturday if not before.

Meanwhile, momentum on a separate bipartisan budget plan by the Senate's "Gang of Six" seemed to ebb as critics warned the measure contains larger tax increases than advertised and it became plain that the measure comes too late and is too controversial to advance quickly — particularly as a part of a debt limit package that already would be teetering on a knife's edge.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a member of the Gang of Six, said Thursday that some 40 senators of both parties back the plan his group has brought forward. It generally takes 60 votes to pass legislation in the 100-member Senate because the rules permit unlimited debate unless a supermajority votes to limit it.

But Conrad also said he feels there's too little time between now and Aug. 2 to complete a comprehensive package of spending cuts, benefit program changes and an overhaul of the tax code.

Conrad said doing nothing is not an option, saying that "we're all going to have to do things we'd prefer in a perfect world not to have to do."

Absent a breakthrough between Obama and Republicans, there is a hotly contested backup plan by McConnell that would give Obama broad new powers to obtain increases in the government's borrowing unless blocked by veto-proof two-thirds margins in both the House and Senate.

Many conservative Republicans are in an uproar over the McConnell plan, and more than 70 House members signed a letter circulated by members of the conservative Republican Study Committee calling on Boehner to come out in public opposition to the McConnell-Reid plan..

In a shift, said Wednesday that Obama would back a short-term deal to prevent a disastrous financial default on Aug. 2 but only if a larger and still elusive deficit-cutting agreement was essentially in place.

Officially, the president continued to push for a big compromise that would cut the nation's budget deficit and extend the government's tapped-out borrowing power above the current $14.3 trillion cap. Obama had threatened to veto any stopgap expansion of the nation's debt limit, at one point last week even challenging House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., not to call his bluff about it.

Carney said if a divided Congress and the White House can agree on a significant deal, Obama would accept a "very short-term extension" of the debt limit to let bigger legislation work its way through Congress.

Obama also is open to the McConnell plan, but it seems barely aloft due to fervent tea party opposition in the House. The hope appears to be that such an option will look a lot better to the House in a week or so, given the lack of other ideas.

The Gang of Six plan has come under assault from critics like House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who say the plan would increase taxes by $2 trillion over the next 10 years instead of the $1 trillion-plus claimed by proponents like Conrad — a development likely to stunt momentum among Republicans.

The revenue increase is larger than advertised because the $1.2 trillion in new taxes comes on top of an underlying assumption used by Obama's deficit commission — and incorporated by the Senate group in its plan — that the Bush-era income tax brackets for family income exceeding $250,000 would revert to the higher, Clinton administration levels. The deficit panel's assumption was made before Obama buckled in December and signed a full extension of the Bush tax cuts.

The Gang of Six plan also earned poor reviews from liberals like Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who said it would "balance the budget on the backs of the vulnerable."

And Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the plan in a missive to his panel members, saying it would cut the Pentagon much too deeply and would unfairly curb military health and retirement benefits.

The Gang of Six plan promises almost $4 trillion in deficit cuts, including an immediate 10-year, $500 billion down payment that would come as Congress sets caps on the agency budgets it passes each year. It also requires an additional $500 billion in cost curbs on federal health care programs, cuts to federal employee pensions, curbs in the growth of military health care and retirement costs, and modest cuts to farm subsidies.

Conrad made his remarks in an interview Thursday on MSNBC.

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McConnell, Boehner increase criticism of Obama (AP)

By ANDREW TAYLOR and JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Andrew Taylor And Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press – 55?mins?ago

WASHINGTON – The top two Republicans in Congress sought Tuesday to put the onus on President Barack Obama for failure to resolve a fight over how to increase the government's borrowing authority. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said a deal with Obama is "probably unattainable" and House Speaker John Boehner said the specter of default is "his problem."

The unusually blunt and combative language came just hours ahead of another White House meeting aimed at finding an accommodation on a package of spending cuts to accompany an increase the debt limit. It further complicated an already convulsive bargaining environment, with the Aug. 2 debt limit extension deadline fast approaching.

McConnell maintained that White House offers to cut long-term spending amount to "smoke and mirrors" and directly challenged Obama's leadership. After years of discussions and months of negotiations," the Kentucky Republican said, "I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is probably unattainable."

Said Boehner: "This debt limit increase is his problem and I think it's time for him to lead by putting his plan on the table — something that Congress can pass. Where is the president's plan? When's he going to lay his cards on the table?"

McConnell charged in a Senate floor speech that Democrats and the Obama administration were relying on budget gimmicks to give the "appearance of serious belt-tightening."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Republican reaction Tuesday "was unfortunate."

"Sometimes there's rhetoric put out there in public that doesn't match what has often been very constructive and respectful conversations in meetings," Carney told reporters. He added: "By fits and starts, the process continues to move forward."

Responding to Boehner's comment, Carney pointed out that it is Congress' responsibility to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling.

"The president doesn't have a vote in this," he said. "It's Congress that has to act." He said Obama will be in office for at least another 18 months, and "the American people expect Congress to work with him."

Obama has been pushing for $4 trillion in a 10-year deficit reduction proposal in hopes of freeing votes to increase the government's borrowing authority. But Boehner, after seeking to forge a deal of that magnitude, told the president that a smaller, $2 trillion to $2.4 trillion deal was more realistic. A deal is essential to win Republican votes to increase the nation's debt ceiling by Aug. 2, or risk a government default.

McConnell said Republicans will "do the responsible thing and ensure the government doesn't default on its obligations."

But he dismissed the cuts the administration and Democrats have proposed. Republicans say Democrats want most of the spending cuts to be concentrated in the later years of a deal. They say that despite promising cuts of $1.1 trillion from Cabinet agency operating budgets, the White House is insisting on a two-year freeze in such spending at the current level of $1.05 trillion.

McConnell's and Boehner's heightened criticisms come as Obama has increasingly used public appearances, including a news conference Monday and a network television interview Tuesday, to take his case to the public. Obama has argued that both Democrats and Republicans need to make politically painful decisions and has portrayed Republicans as intransigent.

As the debate intensified, both sides looked for signs, subtle or otherwise, that negotiations were souring.

In an interview with CBS Tuesday, Obama seemed to back off his unequivocal assurances that the debt ceiling would be raised, thus avoiding a first-ever default.

CBS anchor Scott Pelley asked Obama if he could guarantee that Social Security checks would go out on Aug. 3, the day after the administration says the government would go into default.

"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd, if we haven't resolved this issue.," Obama replied in an excerpt of the interview released by CBS. "Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it."

Earlier, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed that no one in government would let a government default occur.

"Let me be clear: the debt limit will be raised," Geithner told a Women in Finance Symposium Tuesday. "Failure is not an option. Both sides understand what is at stake and will come to an agreement."

He said Obama is willing to make spending cuts across the government "as long as they are done responsibly, over time."

Until today, Republicans had so far focused their criticism on Obama's demand for new tax revenues in the final deficit reduction package. But McConnell's tone indicated a new line of attack based on competing versions of how much progress had been made in talks led by Vice President Joe Biden in May and June.

McConnell accused the administration of leaking its proposals for spending cuts to the media without details.

"The lack of detail concealed the fact that the savings they were supposedly willing to support were at best smoke and mirrors," the Kentucky Republican said.

On Monday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., a participant who left the Biden talks last month because of Democratic demands on taxes, spelled out potential spending cuts that had been identified. But Democratic lawmakers made clear that such a cutting-only approach without tax increases on wealthier Americans would never pass the Democratic-led Senate or the House, where Democratic votes would be needed, too.

Cantor, aides said, outlined up to $2.3 trillion in spending cuts over the upcoming decade, with $1.3 trillion coming from squeezing the day-to-day budgets of Cabinet agencies, including the Pentagon.

Cantor erred on the high end of the savings range in virtually every instance. The White House countered that the cuts really approached $1.7 trillion or so, which would leave negotiators $700 billion short of the $2.4 trillion being sought.

Democratic officials familiar with Obama's private talks with leaders of the House and Senate insist that Congress will not let the government go into default for the first time in American history — and that Republicans, ultimately, would vote to raise the debt limit even if a deficit-cutting package does not come together over the next two weeks.

Republicans say they won't allow a default, but that a major reduction in spending must come as part of the package — and therefore both sides remain in a stalemate on the debt limit.

After Monday's White House meeting, neither side showed any give that might generate hopes for a speedy agreement. Instead, Republicans again took a firm stand against revenue increases while Obama and his Democratic allies insisted that they be part of any equation that cuts programs like Medicare.

"I do not see a path to a deal if they don't budge, period," Obama said on Monday.

At the same time, the president turned up the pressure by announcing he won't sign any short-term debt limit increases.

"We are going to get this done," Obama insisted during a news conference.

Obama's declaration seemed aimed at pressuring lawmakers to continue to strive for the largest deficit reduction plan possible, even though hopes for a "grand bargain" mixing a complete overhaul of the tax code with cuts to benefits programs like Medicare and Social Security fizzled over the weekend.

The Treasury Department says lawmakers have until Aug. 2 to extend the nation's debt limit to prevent a catastrophic government default on its bills. With that deadline fast approaching, the public is growing more concerned about what happens if Congress and the White House can't reach a deal.

Forty-two percent of Americans say they see a greater risk to the economy from not raising the debt limit, according to a Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll conducted last week. That's up 7 points from late May. However, there are still 47 percent of Americans who say they are more concerned about the consequences of raising the debt ceiling.

The business community is also upping the pressure on lawmakers, warning that a failure to increase the nation's borrowing limit could have an immediate impact on the economy recovery.

"An unprecedented default on the nation's bills would have dire consequences for our economy, our markets, and Main Street Americans," said Thomas Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Despite lingering hopes for a larger deal, the goal of the White House talks is to produce spending cuts of at least $2.4 trillion or so over the coming decade. Such cuts wouldn't do enough to address deficits that threaten the economy, but they would represent a down payment on further reductions that would be imposed after next year's elections.

The $2.4 trillion figure would meet the House Republicans' own standard of a debt-cutting package: one that would exceed the size of the increase in the debt limit, and provide enough borrowing room to get the country through 2012.

Obama spent most of his time encouraging lawmakers to reconsider a bigger deal, on the order of some $4 trillion in spending cuts and tax hikes over 10 years. Democrats familiar with the talks said it was clear after the meeting that negotiators are going to have come up with some new ideas in hopes of finding a compromise.

As a measure of the political peril Obama is courting, the president is willing to discuss raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 years, provided Republicans would allow Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy to expire at the end of 2012 and agree to other unspecified demands, according to a Democratic congressional aide.

All the officials familiar with the talks spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose details of the private discussions.

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Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Julie Pace and Erica Werner contributed to this report.

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