US debt plan hangs fire as Senate defeats Republican bill

A budget deficit-cutting bill piloted by Republicans met with certain death in the US Senate despite the majority Democratic party's offer on Friday to forge a last-ditch compromise in the Senate to avoid a crippling debt default by the US government.

The House divide remained even as the Tuesday deadline to raise the debt ceiling for the US government neared.

The bill, moved by speaker John Boehner, scraped through in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives despite the rift within the party, but failed to make it in the Senate.

The Republican deficit-cutting plan pushed through by a vote of 218-to-210 in the House after the party's leaders reworked the bill to appease anti-tax conservatives.

The reworked plan included a requirement for Congress to pass a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and send it to the states for ratification.

In fact, it was the rift within the Republicans that complicated efforts to reach a wider compromise on the budget deficit issue.