Legislative gridlock continues as US legislators battle over budget cuts

The gridlock over spending cuts to the US budget continued on Monday, as both Republican and Democratic lawmakers stuck to rigid positions, days before government funding is likely to run out by Friday resulting in a crisis.

President Barack Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House for budget talks on Tuesday, in an effort to break the stalemate. ''With the process running short on time, the president will urge leaders to reach a final agreement and avoid a government shutdown that would be harmful to our economic recovery, said Jay Carney, the White House spokesperson.

Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, are determined to push ahead with deeper overall cuts.
 
The two sides were close to finalising a deal that would cut spending by $33 billion in the current fiscal, but moves by Republicans (to overhaul health programmes and slash tax rates) and Democrats (to reduce military spending) threaten to derail the deal.

The Democrats have proposed a more than $2 billion cut in defence and national security, which is not acceptable to the Republicans.

The US is facing a projected deficit of $1.4 trillion this year, but the $33 billion spending cut – the largest in US history – would barely have an impact on it. Democrats have proposed cutting the defence budget by a billion dollars, a move vehemently opposed by the Republicans.

Rep Paul Ryan, the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee, has also proposed massive spending cuts of $6.2 trillion over the next decade. The proposal, made in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal by Ryan, aims to cut $4.4 trillion from federal deficits. This is four times the $1.1 trillion cuts suggested by Obama.