The Senate has approved must-do legislation to fund the day-to-day budgets of five Cabinet agencies, kick-starting long overdue work to add the details to budget limits agreed to by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans this summer.

House Speaker John Boehner says he has high hopes that a congressional "supercommittee" will be able to reach "common ground" on a plan to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over a decade.

Rival deficit-cutting plans advanced by Republicans and Democrats on Congress' secretive supercommittee would both mean smaller-than-expected cost of living benefit increases for veterans and federal retirees as well as Social Security recipients and bump up taxes for some individuals and families, according to officials familiar with the recommendations.

The richest 1 percent of Americans have been getting far richer over the last three decades while the middle class and poor have seen their after-tax household income only crawl up in comparison, according to a government study.

President Barack Obama and his allies in the Senate promise to press ahead with separate votes on pieces of his failed $447 billion jobs measure despite unanimous opposition from Republicans. But there also are signs of slippage among Democrats and evidence the strategy isn't working with voters.

House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama talked about jobs legislation Thursday in a 10-minute phone call today, the Ohio Republican's office said.

President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate promise additional votes on pieces of the president's $447 billion jobs bill, but how those pieces might be arranged and when the votes might be taken is up in the air.

Congress and the White House face the choice of continued fighting or a shift toward bipartisan bargaining after the Senate voted to kill President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan.