John Boehner: No spending cuts deal after Obama talks

John Boehner House Speaker John Boehner met Mr Obama at the White House on Tuesday

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Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama failed to reach a budget agreement in talks at the White House, House Speaker John Boehner says.

Mr Boehner was called to the White House for talks on a deal aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.

Talks have stalled over legislation that would mix spending cuts with the funds required to run US federal agencies to the end of September.

Democrats have accused Republicans of linking social policies to the bill.

Mr Boehner and Mr Obama were attempting to resolve a plan that has the potential to cut $33bn (£20bn) from this year's spending levels and ensure the government does not shut down when a temporary funding measure expires at midnight on Friday.

Following the meeting, Mr Obama said his administration and House Republicans were closer than they had ever been in coming to an agreement.

"The only question is whether politics and ideology will get in the way of preventing a government shutdown," he said, adding that he was prepared to meet for as long as it took to finalise a deal.

"The last thing we need is a disruption caused by a government shutdown," he said.

But Mr Boehner warned that Republicans would not be forced into accepting options they did not wish to endorse.

"Republicans are committed to resolving last year's budget mess in a manner that will help to remove uncertainty for private-sector job creators, and said failure to make real spending cuts will hurt job creation by further eroding confidence in our economy," a statement released by Mr Boehner's office said.

Mr Boehner said he told President Obama that "in lieu of an agreement in which the White House and Senate agree to real spending cuts", House Republicans were rallying behind a stop-gap bill.

The measure, which includes $12bn (£7.3bn) in immediate spending cuts and enough funds to keep the Pentagon running to the end of September, is aimed at preventing a shutdown, Mr Boehner said.

Separately, Republicans in the House unveiled longer-term plans to slash the budget deficit by more than $5tn (£3tn) over the next 10 years - combining spending cuts with a restructuring of taxpayer-financed health care for the elderly and the poor.

Government shutdown preparations

Mr Boehner said he disputed White House assertions that Democrats and Republicans had agreed to set cuts in spending at $33bn. Republicans want $61bn in cuts.

Republicans on Monday unveiled plans on instructing lawmakers on how the Republican-controlled House would operate if Democrats in the Senate shut down the government.

The White House also advised government agencies on Monday to prepare for a shutdown.

The BBC's Katie Connolly, in Washington, says that although there hasn't been a US government shutdown since 1995, the US government shut down 10 times during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

Shutdowns happen because a law passed in 1870 prohibits the government from operating if a budget hasn't been passed, except in the case of emergencies.

But that law has been interpreted to exempt so-called essential services, including national security, air traffic control, inpatient medical services, emergency outpatient medicine, disaster assistance, prisons, borrowing and taxation, and electricity production, our correspondent adds.

'Driving federal debt'

Earlier, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, released a longer-term plan to slash the budget deficit by about $5 trillion over the coming decade.

In a Wall Street Journal article published on Tuesday, Mr Ryan said Republicans would propose cutting $6.2tn in spending from Mr Obama's budget over the next 10 years.

Mr Ryan has said Republicans are not "looking for a government shutdown" but are quite serious about demanding cuts in spending to curb federal deficits.

He has also said that lawmakers must find a way to come to deal with a lack of funds going into Medicaid and Medicare, two government programmes he has said are driving the federal debt.

Mr Ryan's plan includes a proposal to convert Medicare programme into a system by which private insurers would operate plans approved by the federal government.

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