House Of Representatives, Spending Cuts | featured news

The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts.

Failure of Republican House leadership to pass a debt-reduction bill gives Democrats the edge, at least for now.

Rival Democratic and Republican plans to raise the government's borrowing ability have thrust Congress into a standoff just one week away from a potentially devastating debt crisis.

The Senate on Friday voted along party lines against the proposal to cut spending and raise the debt limit. President Obama pressed for compromise during a town hall meeting.

Top Republican lawmakers and the Obama administration’s budget director both predicted Sunday that an agreement would be reached before the federal government defaults on its debt in early August, but both sides continued to squabble over the details of competing proposals, offering little evidence that a deal was at hand.

President Obama said Friday Congress has a "unique opportunity to do something big" and stabilize the U.S. economy for decades by cutting deficits ...

Frustrations mounted in the continuing battle over the debt ceiling with Reid saying Cantor "shouldn't even be at the table." The comments come as credit-rating firms moved closer to an unprecedented downgrade of the U.S.'s debt.

Budget talks between President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are at a frustrating standstill, leading a top Republican to launch a long-shot proposal to give Obama sweeping new powers to muscle through an increase in the government's debt limit without the approval of a bitterly divided Congress.

Talks to reach a more ambitious deficit-reduction deal effectively broke down on Saturday, House Speaker John Boehner said, as he and fellow Republicans resisted any White House attempts that could increase taxes.

The Speaker of the House said that there were still significant obstacles in the way of an agreement.