Broker Regulation

Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the cuts required by House Speaker John Boehner's new budget proposal are tantamount to a form of class warfare.

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.

House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama wants a blank check from Congress to raise the debt ceiling, but that he's not going to get one.

Decrying a "partisan three-ring circus" in the nation's capital, President Barack Obama criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default Monday night and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline.

Senate Democrats and House Republicans are pushing rival plans to reduce future budget deficits and avert a potential government default next week. Neither plan raises taxes or cuts major benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security.

In a fresh challenge to President Barack Obama, House Republicans unveiled reworked legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating government default in barely a week — but along lines the White House has already rejected.