Both sides of the US Congress’ deadlocked “super committee” held separate talks on Saturday, but formal negotiations remained stalled, reaffirming gloomy predictions that the deficit-fighting panel might fail.
With a deadline of midnight on Wednesday fast approaching, the panel’s six Republican and six Democratic members were still far apart on how to attain a goal of finding at least US$1.2 trillion in budget savings over the next 10 years.
The Republican members held a Saturday morning conference call among themselves, but details about what was said on it were not immediately available, aides said.
Having rejected the latest Republican offer, the six Democrats were holding only private conversations this weekend, with no group meetings planned, aides said.
In a telling remark, Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a super committee member, asked by reporters on Saturday about the No. 1 point of compromise now, said: “Well, I’m not sure there is one.”
At the same time, he said: “Nobody wants to quit until the stroke of midnight.”
The corridors of Congress were largely empty on Saturday. While most super committee members were in Washington, only Kyl was seen by reporters in his Capitol Hill office.
In marked contrast to the secrecy that has surrounded much of the committee’s deliberations, six panel members were set to have appeared yesterday morning on television political talk shows. In recent days, both sides have engaged in a blame game, positioning themselves for the fallout that could result from failure.
The super committee was born out of last summer’s bruising debt ceiling battle between Republicans and Democrats, which brought the world’s biggest economy to the brink of default and cost it its “AAA” credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.
Given unusual powers to tackle the US government’s budget deficit and debt, which topped US$15 trillion on Friday, the committee was seen by many as the best chance, in the near term, for the US to get control of its deficits.
Financial markets, focused on the European debt crisis, have low expectations for the panel. Some analysts are already looking beyond it to the expiration of economic stimulus measures at the end of this year, such as payroll tax cuts, fearing that the end of these could damage the fragile US economic recovery.
Then there are next year’s November elections and a battle over tax cuts from the administration of former US president George W. Bush that were extended through next year. Some analysts said partisan positioning ahead of those fights has undermined the super committee’s efforts.
“There’s still a chance of a deal, but nearly the entire Washington community is rooting for failure,” said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank.
A stock market rally could well result if the super committee defies the odds with a last-minute deal, but markets were unlikely to swoon if no pact emerges, analysts said.
Automatic budget cuts, evenly split between domestic and military spending, are set to kick in in 2013 if the committee fails to reach an agreement. However, Congress could try to rework or undo the legislation mandating the cuts before then.
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