'Really close' to debt deal as deadline nears

'Really close' to debt deal as deadline nears

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., returns to his office following a vote as the debt crisis continues on Capitol Hill in Washington Sunday, July 31, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Racing to avoid a government default, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders reached urgently for a compromise Sunday to permit vital borrowing by the Treasury in exchange for more than $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the two sides were "really, really close" to a deal after months of partisan fighting. Yet he and others stressed that no compromise had been sealed, just two days before a deadline to raise the federal debt limit and enable the government to keep paying its bills.

As contemplated under a deal that McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden were negotiating, the federal debt limit would rise in two stages by at least $2.2 trillion, enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections.

Big cuts in government spending would be phased in over a decade. Thousands of programs - the Park Service, Internal Revenue Service and Labor Department accounts among them - could be trimmed to levels last seen years ago.

No Social Security or Medicare benefits would be cut, but the programs could be scoured for other savings. Taxes would be unlikely to rise.

Any agreement would have to be passed by the Democratic-controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House before going to the White House for Obama's signature. With precious little time remaining, both houses were on standby throughout the day, and Speaker John Boehner was in his office.

Without legislation in place by Tuesday, the Treasury will not be able to pay all its bills, raising the threat of a default that administration officials say could inflict catastrophic damage on the economy.

If approved, though, a compromise would presumably preserve America's sterling credit rating, reassure investors in financial markets across the globe and possibly reverse the losses that spread across Wall Street in recent days as the threat of a default grew.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was "hopeful and confident" a deal would come together. But in a possible hint of dissatisfaction, he pointedly made no mention of congressional Democrats when he said negotiations were between McConnell and the White House and unnamed others.

Officials familiar with the negotiations said that McConnell had been in frequent contact with Vice President Joe Biden, who has played an influential role across months of negotiations.

The talks were proceeding toward a two-step system for raising the debt limit and cutting spending.

The first step would take place immediately, raising the debt limit by nearly $1 trillion and cutting spending by a slightly larger amount over a decade.

That would be followed by creation of a new congressional committee that would have until the end of November to recommend $1.8 trillion or more in deficit cuts, targeting benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, or overhauling the tax code. Those deficit cuts would allow a second increase in the debt limit, which would be needed by early next year.

If the committee failed to reach its $1.8 trillion target, or Congress failed to approve its recommendations by the end of 2011, lawmakers would then have to vote on a proposed constitutional balanced-budget amendment.

If that failed to pass, automatic spending cuts totaling $1.2 trillion would automatically take effect, and the debt limit would rise by an identical amount.

Social Security, Medicaid and food stamps would be exempt from the automatic cuts, but payments to doctors, nursing homes and other Medicare providers could be trimmed, as could subsidies to insurance companies that offer an alternative to government-run Medicare.

Officials describing those steps spoke on condition of anonymity, citing both the sensitivity of the talks and the potential that details could change.

The emerging deal could mark a classic compromise, a triumph of divided government that would let both Obama and Republicans claim they had achieved their objectives.

As the president demanded, the deal would allow the debt limit to rise by enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections.

But barring a change, it appeared Obama's proposal to extend the current payroll tax holiday beyond the end of 2011 would not be included, nor his call for extended unemployment benefits for victims of the recession.

Republicans would win spending cuts of slightly more than the increase in the debt limit, as they have demanded. Additionally, tax increases would be off-limits unless recommended by the bipartisan committee that is expected to include six Republicans and six Democrats. The conservative campaign to force Congress to approve a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution would be jettisoned.

Congressional Democrats have long insisted that Medicare and Social Security benefits not be cut, a victory for them in the proposal under discussion. Yet they would have to absorb even deeper cuts in hundreds of federal programs than were included in Reid's bill, which many Democrats supported in a symbolic vote on the House floor on Saturday.

As details began to emerge, one liberal organization, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, issued a statement that was harshly critical.

"Seeing a Democratic president take taxing the rich off the table and instead push a deal that will lead to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefit cuts is like entering a bizarre parallel universe - one with horrific consequences for middle-class families," it said.

While politically powerful business groups like the Chamber of Commerce are expected to support the deal, tea party organizations and others have looked disapprovingly on legislation that doesn't require approval of a balanced-budget amendment.

If they keep to that position, it could present Boehner a challenge in lining up enough votes to support a compromise, just as Obama may have to stand down rebels within his own party.

The day began with optimistic statements in televised interviews by McConnell and White House officials, then quickly reverted to a reminder of the fierce partisanship of the past several weeks.

Soon after the Senate convened, Republicans blocked legislation Reid had advanced several days ago as part of an outbreak of brinkmanship with Boehner and the Republicans. The vote was 50-49, or 10 short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.

The vote was of no consequence in the fate of the separate efforts to avoid default.

Those talks were unfolding along lines determined by McConnell and Biden, and it was unclear how much more time would be needed.

On the Senate floor, Reid told lawmakers they could leave the Capitol while awaiting developments. "I would not suggest a ball game, though, maybe closer," he said.

A little over a mile away, on a hot, sunny Sunday, the Washington Nationals were playing host to the New York Mets.

Late stab at debt-limit deal to avert US default

Late stab at debt-limit deal to avert US default

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appear at a news conference as the debt crisis goes unresolved on Capitol Hill in Washington, Saturday, July 30, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After weeks of intense partisanship, the White House and congressional leaders made a desperate, last-minute stab at compromise Saturday to avoid the government default threatened for early next week. "There is very little time," declared President Barack Obama.

Obama met with top Democrats at the White House and spoke by phone with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

"He needs to indicate what he will sign, and we are in those discussions," McConnell said of the president. He added he had also spoken with Vice President Joe Biden, who played a prominent role in earlier attempts to break the gridlock that has pushed the country to the verge of an unprecedented default.

"We have until midnight," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid before leaving for the White House. That meeting lasted about 90 minutes. Reid's talk of a midnight deadline referred to the Senate's complicated rules, which can require multiple votes over several days to pass legislation.

The president is seeking an agreement to raise the government's $14.3 trillion debt limit by enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections. He has threatened to veto any legislation that would allow a recurrence of the current crisis before early 2013 but has agreed to Republican demands that deficits be cut - without tax increases - in exchange for additional U.S. borrowing authority.

At a news conference in the Capitol, Speaker John Boehner said that despite the partisanship of recent weeks, "I think we're dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible and I'm confident it will."

Halfway around the world, on a visit to Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, the nation's top military officer fielded questions from troops asking if they would be paid in the event of a default.

"I actually don't know the answer to that question," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, although he told them they would continue to go to work each day.

Without a compromise in place by next Tuesday, administration officials say the Treasury will run out of funds to pay all the nation's bills. They say a subsequent default could prove catastrophic for the U.S. economy and send shockwaves around the world. With financial markets closed for the weekend, lawmakers had a little breathing room, but not much. Asian markets begin opening for the new work week when it is late Sunday afternoon in the capital.

To get to the endgame, Republicans and Democrats had to go through the formality of killing each other's bills - scoring their own political points - before they could turn to meaningful negotiations. Given all the acrimony, the shape of any deal was uncertain.

Still, the sudden talk of compromise contrasted sharply with the day's earlier developments as both the House and Senate convened for unusual Saturday sessions.

The House voted down legislation drafted by Democrat Reid to raise the government's debt limit by $2.4 trillion and cut spending by the same amount.

The vote was 246-173, mostly along party lines and after debate filled with harsh, partisan remarks .

Within minutes, White House officials disclosed the meeting with Reid and Pelosi.

Before the House vote, Republicans said the Reid spending-cuts plan was filled with gimmicks and would make unacceptable reductions in Pentagon accounts. "It offers no real solutions to the out-of-control spending problems," said Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi, part of a group of 87 first-term Republicans who have led the push for deeper spending cuts.

Not even Democrats seemed to like the legislation very much, although many emerged from a closed-door meeting of the rank and file saying they would vote for it.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, called it "the least worst alternative to avoid default."

Yet with their votes, many Democrats signaled their readiness for compromise by voting to cut spending without raising taxes. Many Republicans insist taxes must not be raised to cut into federal deficits, even for the wealthiest Americans and for big oil companies.

In remarks on the House floor, Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., said the vote itself could be prelude to a final effort at compromise that would involve the White House and the leaders of both parties.

Across the Capitol, the Senate marked the hours before a scheduled test vote at 1 a.m. Sunday on the same measure.

There was no doubt about the outcome there, either, unless compromise intervened.

A total of 43 Republicans sent Reid a letter saying they would block the bill from advancing, enough to prevail.

With both parties' preferred solutions blocked, the only alternatives were compromise that was so far elusive or a default that no one claimed to want.

The day's events in the House were orchestrated as political payback, and unusual at that, since Republicans lined up to kill legislation that hadn't even cleared the Senate.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Reid had engineered the demise of a House-passed bill hours after it passed, and without so much as a debate on its merit.

Saturday's proceedings in the House were particularly partisan.

Pelosi said Boehner "chose to go to the dark side" when he changed his own legislation to satisfy tea party lawmakers and other critics.

There were catcalls from the Republican side of the aisle at that, and Pelosi responded by repeating that the speaker "chose to go to the dark side."

Republicans ridiculed Reid's legislation.

"Not only does it fail to address our spending and debt problem, it won't even prevent a downgrade of our credit rating," said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J. "We need actual cuts to government spending to address our long-term debt crisis, not phantom cuts and accounting gimmicks."

Only 24 hours earlier, the House measure squeaked through on a 218-210 vote, with 22 Republicans joining united Democrats in opposing the GOP bill. It paired an immediate $900 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority with $917 billion in spending cuts spread over the coming decade.

While Republicans said it marked the second time the House passed legislation to raise the debt limit - compared to none for the Senate - they also acknowledged Boehner's leverage had been diluted.

He had hoped to pass the bill on Thursday but was forced into a postponement because of objections from tea party-backed conservatives and other critics.

To win their votes, he was forced to add a provision that would require Congress to approve a constitutional balanced budget amendment as a condition for an additional debt limit increase after the initial $900 billion installment.

In addition to driving away some of Boehner's own Republicans, that inflamed Democrats, who seized on it as a surrender to parts of his rank and file who refuse to compromise.

House approves debt bill; Senate ready to reject

House approves debt bill; Senate ready to reject

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio gives a thumbs-up as he leaves the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 29, 2011, after House passage of his debt-limit legislation that was rewritten overnight to win the support of conservative holdouts.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Riven by partisanship, the Republican-controlled House approved emergency legislation Friday night to prevent a threatened government default and bundled it off to swift and certain defeat in the Senate.

"We are almost out of time" for a compromise, warned President Barack Obama as U.S. financial markets trembled at the prospect of economic chaos next week.

The final outcome - with the White House and Senate Democrats calling anew for compromise while criticizing Republicans as Tuesday's deadline drew near - was anything but certain.

The House vote was 218-210, almost entirely along party lines.

The legislation would provide a quick $900 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority - essential to allow the government to continue paying all its bills - along with $917 billion in cuts from federal spending.

It was rewritten hastily overnight to say that before any additional increase in the debt limit could take place, Congress must approve a balanced budget-amendment to the Constitution and send it to the states for ratification.

"Today we have a chance to end this debt limit crisis," declared House Speaker John Boehner, who had been forced by rebels in his own party to put off a scheduled vote 24 hours earlier.

But the change relating to the balanced budget amendment, a concession to tea party-backed conservatives and others, further alienated Democrats. And it diminished prospects of a compromise that can clear both houses and win Obama's signature by next Tuesday's deadline.

At the other end of the Capitol, Senate Democrats waited to reject the bill as swiftly as possible in a prelude to another attempt at compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had an alternative measure to cut spending by $2.2 trillion and raise the debt limit by $2.7 trillion, enough to meet Obama's terms that it tide the Treasury over until 2013.

Reid invited Republicans to suggest changes, saying, "This is likely our last chance to save this nation from default."

The Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, sounded as if he wanted Reid to go first. "I eagerly await the majority leader's plan for preventing this crisis," he said in a statement noting the House had now passed two bills to avoid a default and the Senate none.

At the same time Reid appealed for bipartisanship, he and other party leaders accused Boehner of caving in to extremists in the GOP ranks - "the last holdouts of the tea party," Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois called them.

Republicans conceded that the overnight delay had weakened Boehner's hand in the endgame with Obama and Senate Democrats.

But the Ohio Republican drew applause from his rank and file when he said the House, alone, had advanced legislation to cut deficits, and that he had "stuck his neck out" in recent weeks in hopes of concluding a sweeping deficit reduction deal with Obama.

Boehner's measure would provide a quick $900 billion increase in borrowing authority - essential for the U.S. to keep paying all its bills after next Tuesday - and $917 billion in spending cuts. After the bill's latest alteration, any future increases in the debt limit would be contingent on Congress approving the constitutional amendment and sending it to the states for ratification.

"With conservatives insisting on the addition of a balanced-budget amendment requirement, Speaker Boehner's bill will now cut, cap and balance" federal spending, said Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona as Friday's scheduled vote approached.

The White House called the bill a non-starter. "'Amend the Constitution or default' is a highly dangerous game to play," said press secretary Jay Carney, and Democrats said they would scuttle it as soon as it arrived in the Senate.

The developments occurred one day after Boehner was forced to postpone a vote in the House for fear the earlier version of his measure would suffer a defeat. But by forcing a delay the conservative rebels upended the leadership's strategy of making their bill the only one that could clear Congress before a default and win Obama's reluctant signature.

"Everybody acknowledges that because of the dust-up yesterday we've lost some leverage," said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, an ally of the speaker.

The rebels said they were more worried about stemming the nation's steady rise of red ink.

Rep. Jeff Landry, R-La., a, a first-term lawmaker, issued a statement saying his pressure had paid off.

"The American people have strongly renewed their November calls of bringing fiscal sanity to Washington. I am blessed to be a vehicle driving their wishes to fruition," he said. "This plan is not a Washington deal but a real solution to fundamentally change the way Washington operates."

Administration officials say that without legislation in place by Tuesday, the Treasury will no longer be able to pay all its bills. The result could inflict significant damage on the economy, they add, causing interest rates to rise and financial markets to sink.

Executives from the country's biggest banks met with U.S. Treasury officials to discuss how debt auctions will be handled if Congress fails to raise the borrowing limit before Tuesday's deadline.

But Carney said the administration did not plan to provide the public with details Friday on how the government will prioritize payments.

The day's economic news wasn't very upbeat to begin with - an economy that grew at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent in the second quarter of the year.

Investors weren't impressed with either the economy or the efforts in Washington.

The Dow Jones industrial average appeared headed for a sixth straight day of losses, and bond yields fell as investors sought safer investments in the event of a default.

At the White House, Obama cited the potential toll on the economy as he urged lawmakers to find a way out of gridlock.

He said that for all the partisanship, the two sides were not that far apart. Both agree on initial spending cuts to take effect in exchange for an increase in the debt limit, he said, as well as on a way to consider additional reductions in government benefit programs in the coming months.

"And if we need to put in place some kind of enforcement mechanism to hold us all accountable for making these reforms, I'll support that, too, if it's done in a smart and balanced way," he said.

That went to the crux of the conflict - his insistence that Congress raise the government's borrowing authority by enough to avoid a repeat of the current crisis during the heat of the 2012 election campaigns.

Republicans have resisted, accusing him of injecting purely political considerations into the debt limit negotiations.

But Boehner's failure to line up the votes for his legislation Thursday night seemed to embolden Democrats.

Obama asked his 9.4 million followers on Twitter to send tweets to Republican lawmakers.

"The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan (hash)compromise, let Congress know. Call. Email. Tweet," Obama wrote in a tweet, signed "-BO."

Boehner rewrites his bill, conservatives climb on

Boehner rewrites his bill, conservatives climb on

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks out of a caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 29, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner hastily rewrote his stalled debt-limit bill again Friday, and former conservative foes began climbing aboard. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid signaled he's ready to push ahead with his own version, and President Barack Obama declared "we're almost out of time" in a wrenching political standoff that has heightened fears of a market-rattling government default.

"The power to solve this is in our hands on a day when we've been reminded how fragile the economy already is," the president said from the White House as many U.S. stocks fell in response to a sour report on economic growth and widespread uncertainty over the Washington debt stalemate. "This is one burden we can lift ourselves. We can end it with a simple vote."

A simple vote was hard to come by, just a few days before Tuesday's debt-limit deadline.

On Capitol Hill, Boehner revised his measure and made inroads with reluctant rank-and-file conservatives who have argued that the deficit cuts it contained were insufficient in exchange for a debt limit hike. The leadership pushed toward a late Friday vote.

Rep. David Dreier of California said the revised measure would still raise the nation's debt limit by $900 billion - essential to allow the government to keep paying its bills - and cut spending by $917 billion. But a later increase in borrowing authority wouldn't take effect unless Congress sent a constitutional balanced budget amendment to the states for ratification.

That was a key demand of rebellious conservatives who withheld their votes from the legislation on Thursday night.

That balanced-budget amendment addition made Phil Gingery, R-Ga., a convert. "That's basically what many of us were holding out for," he said after GOP leaders made a fresh appeal to rank and file at a closed-door meeting.

Freshman Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said the change on the balanced-budget amendment "got a lot of additional Republican votes."

Even Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, a self-described "beat-up no" after days of arm-twisting, said he was leaning toward "yes."

The White House immediately dismissed the new version, with spokesman Jay Carney calling it "moot and irrelevant" and certain to fail in the Senate.

In a nod to the endgame, however, Carney added: "We do have to wait for that process to play out before we can get focused on legitimately solving this problem."

In the Senate, Reid pressed forward with his legislation, setting up a showdown vote for Sunday. On the Senate floor, Reid said glumly, "This is likely our last chance to save this nation from default."

The Nevada Democrat said he had invited Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to join him in negotiations.

A divided government is struggling to break the extreme Washington gridlock and head off a first-ever default that would leave the Treasury without the money necessary to pay all its bills. Administration officials say Tuesday is the deadline.

"There are plenty of ways out of this mess. But we are almost out of time," Obama said.

The biggest sticking point is the House bill's call for congressional votes to raise the debt ceiling, in two stages, before the 2012 elections. The president wants one vote before his bid for a second term. No matter how the endgame plays out, one House GOP veteran indicated that the party's internal fight had weakened the hand of its leaders.

"Everybody acknowledges that because of the dust-up yesterday we've lost some leverage," said Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio. "You can say it's remote, but there was a chance that the package yesterday, if it had been successfully voted out, would have been adopted by the Senate and signed by the president. I think everybody acknowledges that's not going to happen with this piece of legislation.

"I don't think anybody thinks that this bill is going to be passed as is by the Senate. It's going to come back to us, and we'll take a look at it," he said.

McConnell dismissed the Democratic effort on Reid's bill, arguing that it stands no chance in the GOP-controlled House, and he accused Obama of pushing the nation to the brink of an economic abyss.

"If the president hadn't decided to blow up the bipartisan solution that members of Congress worked so hard to produce last weekend, we'd be voting to end this crisis today," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

In his brief White House remarks, Obama made a fresh appeal to Americans to contact members of Congress.

The office of the Architect of the Capitol reported that the main phone circuit was near capacity. It said outside callers were occasionally getting busy signals as a result of the heavy volume.

Congressional phone lines and websites became overloaded earlier in the week after Obama asked people to contact their lawmakers about the stalemate.

Obama also asked his 9.4 million followers on Twitter to send tweets to Republican lawmakers "and urge them to support a bipartisan compromise to the debt crisis." Obama's Twitter feed planned to send out the Twitter handles of several lawmakers, starting with Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby of Alabama.

"The time for putting party first is over. If you want to see a bipartisan (hash)compromise, let Congress know. Call. Email. Tweet," Obama wrote in a tweet, signed "-BO."

On Thursday, Boehner, R-Ohio, suffered a stinging setback when, for a second day, he had to postpone a vote on his proposal to extend the nation's borrowing authority while cutting federal spending by nearly $1 trillion.

"Obviously, we didn't have the votes," Dreier said after Boehner and the GOP leadership had spent hours trying to corral the support of rebellious conservatives.

If Republicans now can get Boehner's version through the House, a rapid and complex set of choices will determine whether and how a debt crisis can be averted. House Republicans will be under tremendous pressure to pass something, even if they have to make it so appealing to their right wing that the nation's independents and centrists will scorn it. As Thursday's events proved, nothing is guaranteed.

The main area of dispute between the two parties is how to encourage or guarantee big spending cuts in the future without rekindling a fiercely divisive debt-ceiling debate such as the one now raging.

Interviews with well-placed insiders suggest the following road map, assuming Boehner can get his bill out of the House:

The Democratic-controlled Senate would kill it quickly. The focus then would fall on the Senate's two leaders, Reid and McConnell. They must decide whether they can reach a compromise that can pass the Senate - where a united GOP can kill bills with filibusters - and then pass the House and be signed by Obama. The White House would be integral to such talks.

Republican officials say McConnell could hold a strong hand, despite the House's shaky performance. He could argue that the House finally passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling, while the Senate has done nothing but kill that bill. If Tuesday's deadline passes with no resolution, Republicans say, voters will blame Democrats.

Under this thinking, the Senate would pass a measure similar to the House bill, perhaps with minor changes to save face and give political cover to Democrats who vote for it. The House would quickly concur, with numerous Democrats and all but the most conservative Republicans voting aye. Obama would have no choice but to sign it.

Democrats say the opposite is true. Obama has persuasively argued in recent weeks that Republicans are unreasonably demanding, they say.

Democrats control the Senate and White House. If Republicans insist that a partisan, House-passed bill is the only vehicle, then public anger will fall on them, this thinking goes.

A $900 billion debt-limit hike would come first, coupled with $917 billion in spending cuts over 10 years. Under the Boehner revision, approval of a balanced-budget constitutional amendment would open a path to another $1.6 trillion in borrowing power, provided that Congress and the president have agreed to another round of spending cuts of that amount or more.

Obama has consistently rejected this condition. He says it would hurt the economy and touch off another ferocious political fight over the debt ceiling, which Congress previously raised with little fuss year after year. Global markets and investors would not be reassured by such a drawn-out, uncertain scenario, he says.

House voting on GOP bill _ key step in debt fight

House voting on GOP bill _ key step in debt fight

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks to a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 28, 2011, as debt talks continue.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Thursday's crucial vote neared, Republican leaders convinced a growing number of their fractious rank and file to support a House plan to stave off an unprecedented government default. Many of the chamber's GOP freshmen, crucial to passage, were climbing aboard, but leaders stopped short of claiming victory.

If the House approved the bill, it would bring President Barack Obama and congressional leaders a step closer to endgame efforts for a debt-limit solution before Tuesday's deadline.

At an afternoon news conference, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House would act on legislation that he called "a sincere, honest effort to end this crisis." Rival Democratic leaders moved ahead on the assumption that Boehner would prevail in rallying Republicans to back the legislation.

Republicans are seeking deep spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit to allow the government to keep paying its bills. The White House has threatened to veto the GOP bill if it makes it through the Democratic-controlled Senate. Still, getting the newly modified House plan passed on Thursday was seen as an important step toward finding a compromise - possibly in the Senate.

Rival plans by Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid have enough in common - including the establishment of a special congressional panel to recommend additional spending cuts this fall - that Reid has hinted a compromise could be achievable.

As debate got under way in the House, Reid said the Senate would vote on the GOP bill as soon as the House finished late Thursday - and predicted it would fail in his chamber.

"No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now," Reid said.

Earlier in the day, in a closed-door GOP meeting, Boehner, R-Ohio, made headway in securing the 217 votes necessary to pass his plan. No Democrats were expected to support it. Boehner told the Republicans he expected to round up enough votes but was not there yet.

"But today is the day," he said, according to people in the room.

Later, Boehner said the bill "is as large a step as we're able to take at this point in time that is doable and signable and to become law," he said.

Standing with Boehner, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who counts the votes, offered no numbers, but said they were moving in the right direction.

The bill passed an early hurdle as the House voted 238-186 along party lines to move forward on the legislation.

Some lawmakers were climbing behind it, though sometimes grudgingly.

"I think it's the best deal we can get," said Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, who said he had dropped his opposition. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he would back the measure to ensure that Boehner "has a seat at the table" for the final negotiations.

Critical to Boehner is support from his chamber's 87 freshmen, who lifted the GOP to its House majority last November, many of them with tea party support from the right. More than a dozen freshmen told reporters that a significant number of their class were now backing Boehner's plan

"It is not a perfect plan, certainly, but it is a good step forward," said Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., one of the newcomers.

The White House expected Boehner to rally enough Republicans for the measure, with adviser David Plouffe saying it will "pass out of the House in partisan fashion." The House has 240 Republicans and 193 Democrats with two vacancies. Boehner can only afford to lose two dozen members.

Wall Street warily watched the standoff in Washington. Stocks rose modestly for much of the day, then faded. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 62 points, the fifth straight daily drop.

The Treasury Department moved ahead with plans to hold its regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month Treasury securities on Monday. The department said it would provide additional information on how it would pay its bills if the deadline should pass without an increase in the nation's borrowing authority.

While the Boehner and Reid measures differ in key details, they also share similarities that underscore the concessions made by the two sides in recent days. Reid's bill does not envision a tax increase to reduce deficits, a bow to Republicans. But neither does the House measure require passage of a constitutional balanced budget amendment for state ratification, a step in the direction of Obama and the Democrats.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney said, "What a compromise looks like is pretty clear: significant deficit reduction, a mechanism by which Congress would take on the tough issues of tax reform and entitlement reform, and a lifting of the debt ceiling beyond -- into 2013, so that we do not have the cloud of uncertainty that is hanging over our economy right now."

In the House, Boehner made headway with balky conservatives unhappy that the measure contains smaller spending cuts than a more-stringent debt measure that passed the House last week. The new measure depends on caps on agency budgets to cut more than $900 billion from the deficit over the coming decade while permitting a commensurate increase in the nation's borrowing to allow the government to pay its bills.

Boehner argued that the measure represented "the best opportunity we have to hold the president's feet to the fire. He wants a $2.4 trillion blank check that lets him continue his spending binge through the next election. This is the time to say no." Boehner made the comments Wednesday to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.

The White House threatened a veto, saying the bill did not meet Obama's demand for an increase in the debt limit large enough to prevent a rerun of the current crisis next year, in the heat of the 2012 election campaign.

"It's inconceivable to me that the president would actually follow through on this threat," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday.

McConnell accused Democrats of "playing with fire" in planning to block the Boehner proposal in the Senate.

Obama supports an alternative drafted by Reid that contains comparable cuts to agency operating budgets but also claims savings from lowball estimates of war costs. Reid's plan would provide a record-breaking $2.7 trillion in additional borrowing authority, enough to tide the government over through 2012. Reid, however, is plainly short of the votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.

Unless Congress acts by Tuesday, administration officials say, the government will not be able to pay all its bills. They include $23 billion in Social Security benefits due Aug. 3, an $87 billion payment to investors to redeem maturing Treasury securities and more than $30 billion in interest payments that come due Aug. 15.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other officials warn that a default could prove catastrophic for an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades. But some skeptics, including conservative Republicans like Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, say Geithner can manage Treasury's cash flow to avoid a catastrophe if Congress fails to act.

House Republicans tweaked their measure Wednesday to enhance its prospects of passage after a worse-than expected cost estimate from congressional budget analysts on Tuesday. The changes were modest, but under arcane budget conventions, they brought projected savings for 2012 to $22 billion, part of a 10-year cut of $917 billion. That would trigger a $900 billion increase in the debt limit.

Boehner showed fire in a meeting Wednesday with the Republican caucus.

"Get your ass in line," Boehner told the rank and file. "I can't do this job unless you're behind me."

The speaker still faced resistance.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said he is still "a beat up no" vote after Thursday's session.

Plouffe was interviewed on MSNBC.

Hope for debt deal, despite disputes, veto threat

Hope for debt deal, despite disputes, veto threat

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., center, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., left, and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 27, 2011, to talk about the conflicting plans to deal with the debt crisis.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Crisis concerns rising, House Republican leaders shrugged off a White House veto threat and an outbreak of tensions within their own party Wednesday as they built support for legislation to stave off the government default threatened for next week. Worried Wall Street sent stocks plunging on fears that political gridlock would prevail.

"I can't do this job unless you're behind me," House Speaker John Boehner bluntly told his fractious rank and file in the run-up to a scheduled Thursday vote on the bill, which was hastily rewritten to show deeper spending cuts than 24 hours earlier.

With Boehner facing a major test of his leadership, the While House disparaged the measure he was working so hard to pass. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada called it "a big wet kiss for the right wing," and all 51 Senate Democrats and two independents pledged to scuttle it if it cleared the House.

The White House has threatened a veto, saying the bill does not meet President Barack Obama's demand for an increase in the debt limit large enough to prevent a rerun of the current crisis next year, in the heat of the 2012 election campaign.

Instead, Obama supports an alternative drafted by Reid that also cuts spending, yet provides enough additional borrowing authority to tide the government over through next year.

For all the bluster, there were hints that a compromise might be near.

"Magic things can happen here in Congress in a very short period of time under the right circumstances," said Reid, the Senate majority leader.

Without legislation in place by Aug. 2, administration officials say the Treasury will not be able to pay all the nation's bills, possibly triggering a default that could prove catastrophic for an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.

Two days after Obama and Boehner made unprecedented back-to-back speeches on national television, there was evidence that the debt crisis was becoming a national cause of concern.

Shawn Bonner of Boerne, Texas, said, "I don't think the people who are making the decisions live in the same environment we do." She said of the two sides: "They've both dug in their heels for political statements, and we need them to make decisions to help the country." She was in Tennessee, touring the State Capitol.

The U.S. financial markets posted big losses for the day as political leaders maneuvered. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 200 points and appeared headed for its worst week in nearly a year.

"Confidence in our political system is beginning to fade." said Channing Smith, managing director of Capital Advisors Inc. "As hours pass and the uncertainty builds, I think the market is starting to price in the potential that we might not have a solution by Aug. 2."

In Washington, across from the Capitol, a few dozen tea party activists rallied - and appeared as divided as the conservatives in the House. Some issued an online call for Boehner to resign as speaker, while others said he deserved time to try and strike the best deal possible.

The Republican legislation underwent revisions to increase its prospects of passage.

That meant changes that brought projected savings for 2012 to $22 billion, part of a 10-year cut of $917 billion in all that would trigger a $900 billion increase in the debt limit. The bill also would establish a special committee of lawmakers to recommend additional cuts that would trigger additional borrowing authority if approved.

While the two parties' bills differed in key details, they also shared similarities that underscored the concessions made by both sides in recent days. Reid's bill does not envision a tax increase to reduce deficits, a bow to Republicans. But neither does the House measure require both houses to approve a constitutional balanced budget amendment for state ratification, a step in the direction of Obama and the Democrats.

For Boehner, the House vote shaped up as a critical test of his ability to lead a majority that includes 87 first-term lawmakers, many of them elected with tea party support. Passage was also imperative to maximize the leadership's leverage with Obama and Reid in a fast-approaching endgame.

The speaker was direct in the meeting with rank-and-file GOP lawmakers on Wednesday. "Get your ass in line," he told them. "I can't do this job unless you're behind me."

If House conservatives torpedo the bill, any follow-up would probably require Democratic votes to pass. That, in turn, would mean smaller spending cuts than Republicans are seeking in exchange for raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit.

As Thursday's vote approached, some Republicans seemed to be swinging behind the legislation, however reluctantly.

"Rep. Bill Huizenga, a first-term lawmaker from Michigan, said he was undecided how to vote, but he added, "This is about as good as it's going to get. That's a pretty strong argument."

"Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President Obama are going to be surprised tomorrow night," said Rep. Allen West, a Florida first-term Republican. "I'll bet my retirement check on it. I'm a conservative. I'm going to support this."

Republicans control 240 seats in the House, compared with 193 for the Democrats, and there was strong opposition from some conservatives.

"I don't know where the votes are today," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leader of the Republican Study Committee, an organization of conservative Republican lawmakers who often have disagreed with the leadership. "I just know that I am against the bill."

But Jordan felt obliged to open a closed-door meeting of the GOP rank and file during the day by apologizing for the actions of two aides. Officials said one sent an email to outside organizations suggesting they lobby some RSC members who were wavering on the debt limit bill. A second aide recounted details of an earlier GOP closed-door meeting in an email he had sent.

As Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., read one of the emails aloud, there were scattered calls to "fire him," referring to the aide responsible. The officials who described the events did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose details from a closed-door meeting.

Across the Capitol, Reid played a waiting game, scheduling no votes until Boehner could show he could prevail in the House.

The White House rejected one proposed way out of the crisis.

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn suggested the president unilaterally raise the debt limit, citing a clause in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says the validity of the nation's public debt "shall not be questioned."

Obama said several days ago he had consulted with White House lawyers on that point and they were unenthusiastic about the idea.

At the White House, Carney was dismissive of the suggestion. "There are no off-ramps. There is no way around this. There is no escape," he said."

Lawmakers generally have been assuming they would need to approve an additional $2.4 trillion in borrowing authority to make sure the Treasury could handle the nation's finances beyond the 2012 elections.

Yet a $2.2 trillion increase would suffice, based on assumptions in a letter that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent to Congress in April. He wrote that the country's borrowing was increasing by an average of $125 billion a month. Additionally, the government must repay the $237 billion cost of the extraordinary measures it has been taking since May 16 to avoid breeching the $14.3 trillion debt limit.

Conservative ire threatens GOP debt plan in House

Conservative ire threatens GOP debt plan in House

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, right, accompanied by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., gestures while speaking at The Republican National Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 26, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thwarted by conservatives in his own Republican Party, House Speaker John Boehner scrambled Tuesday to secure enough GOP votes to beat a fast-closing Aug. 2 deadline and stave off the potential financial chaos of the nation's first-ever default.

At the same time, public head-butting between Democratic President Barack Obama and the Republicans showed no sign of easing. The White House declared Obama would veto the Boehner bill, even if it somehow got through the House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.

For all that, it was the tea party-backed members of Boehner's own party who continued to vex him, and heavily influence the debt and deficit negotiating terms - not to mention his chances of holding on to the speakership.

Their adamant opposition to any tax increases forced Boehner to back away from a "grand bargain" with Obama that might have made dramatic cuts in government spending. Yet when Boehner turned this week to a more modest cost-cutting plan, with no tax hikes, many conservatives balked again. They said the proposal lacked the more potent tools they seek, such as a constitutional mandate for balanced budgets.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of a large group of conservative Republicans, sent a tremor through the Capitol Tuesday when he said he doubted Boehner had enough support to pass his plan Wednesday, when it is scheduled for a vote. The Boehner bill would require congressional action to raise the debt ceiling this summer, and again before the 2012 elections.

Obama strongly opposes that last requirement, arguing that it would reopen the delicate and crucial debt discussions to unending political pressure during next year's campaigns.

The president supports a separate bill, pushed by Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Democratic-controlled Senate, that would raise the debt ceiling enough to tide the government over through next year - and the elections.

Boehner wasn't helped by an official congressional analysis late Tuesday that said his plan would produce smaller savings than originally promised - less than $1 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade rather than the $1.2 trillion he estimated on Monday.

Earlier, responding to the conservative Republican opposition, Boehner quickly went on Rush Limbaugh's radio show, then he began one-on-one chats with wavering Republicans on the House floor during midday roll call votes.

"He has to convince a few people," Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., observed dryly from a doorway.

A serious, almost dire urgency ran through Boehner's efforts. The clock was ticking down to next Tuesday's deadline to continue the government's borrowing powers and avert possible defaults on U.S. loans.

Congressional veterans say a final-hour bargain can't be reached until both parties irrefutably prove to themselves and the public that neither the Democrats' top goals nor the Republicans' can be reached in the divided Congress.

Moreover, Boehner's grasp on the speakership could be weakened if he fails to pass the debt-ceiling plan that bears his name. Assuming no more than five Democrats support the measure - the same number that backed a GOP balanced-budget bill last week - Boehner can afford to lose no more than 28 of the House's 240 Republicans.

His allies predicted he'll make it, and Boehner got a vocal endorsement from his sometimes rival, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. But holdouts were not limited to the much-discussed freshman class, elected in the tea party-fueled 2010 elections.

"He can't get my vote because I felt like that, for long-term solutions to this problem, all these promises we make in cutting spending never seem to occur," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga. " I've been here nine years and I've never seen it happen yet."

Six-term Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a long-time critic of deficit spending, said he also was leaning against Boehner's bill even though he knows a tougher measure cannot be enacted. "Obviously you have to weigh that against passing something that just doesn't solve the problem," Flake said.

Major business groups weighed in. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged support of Boehner's bill, while the conservative Club for Growth denounced it as too weak.

While Boehner searched for votes, some Americans seemed to edge closer to notion that the Aug. 2 deadline might pass without a solution. The stock market fell again, although not dramatically. California planned to borrow about $5 billion from private investors as a hedge against a possible federal government default.

The White House spoke with veterans' groups about what might happen to vets' benefits if a deal isn't reached. Obama has said he can't guarantee Social Security checks and payments to veterans and the disabled would go out on schedule.

The Senate worked on other issues, waiting to see if Boehner's bill would pass the House and come its way. Reid, D-Nev., said the Boehner bill could not pass his chamber.

Reid has his own plan. Like Boehner's, it would identify about $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to the day-to-day operating budgets of government agencies. Reid's proposal, however, would require only one congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling before the 2012 elections. And it counts an extra $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both proposals would create a bipartisan congressional commission to identify further deficit reductions, especially in major health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

For seven months, tea party-backed House members - freshmen and veterans alike -have rewritten congressional traditions. Speakers typically can twist arms, offer favors and issue veiled threats to round up the needed support on tough votes. It's possible Boehner will be able to do so on the debt-ceiling matter.

But many tea party activists abhor political compromise. They insist that their elected officials stand on principle, regardless of the consequences.

"A lot of the tea party guys owe certain support groups," said Rep. Walter Jones Jr., R-N.C. He said he had not decided how to vote on Boehner's bill.

Freshman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., bristles at the notion that tea party-influenced newcomers are sheep-like ideologues willing to risk default. "We're not a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing Neanderthals," Gowdy said. "We're interested in answering what we perceive to be the mandate, which is to stop the spending and change the way Washington handles money."

Gowdy said he was leaning against Boehner's proposal.

But freshman Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a tea party favorite, felt otherwise.

"This Boehner plan, does it have everything that I want in it?" West said. "Absolutely not. It is the 70-75 percent plan that we can go forward with."

Petri, a 33-year House veteran, said Boehner may need the votes of 35 to 40 Democrats, which Democratic leaders say is impossible.

Asked how Boehner will get out of his predicament, Petri paused and said: "When I think of it, I'll give him a call."

GOP, Dems both unveil debt plans; Obama to TV

GOP, Dems both unveil debt plans; Obama to TV

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, joined by other GOP leaders, criticizes President Obama and Congressional Democrats for failure to end the debt crisis, Monday, July 25, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 25, 2011. From left are, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, Boehner, Rep. David Dreier,, R-Calif., and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a fresh outbreak of brinkmanship, first Republicans, then Democrats drafted rival fallback legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating government default in little more than a week.

President Barack Obama readied a prime-time nationally televised speech on short notice amid the gridlock. One official said he would call for compromise.

The official said Obama would quote Ronald Reagan - a hero to many conservatives - who said during his presidency that failure to raise the debt ceiling would do "incalculable damage."

Underscoring the dramatic standoff, several networks agreed to carry rebuttal remarks afterward by House Speaker John Boehner.

Despite warnings to the contrary, U.S. financial markets have appeared to take the political maneuvering in stride - so far. Wall Street posted losses Monday but with no indication of panic among investors.

Without signed legislation by day's end on Aug. 2, the Treasury will be unable to pay all its bills, possibly triggering an unprecedented default that officials warn could badly harm a national economy struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.

Obama wants legislation that will raise the nation's debt limit by at least $2.4 trillion in one vote, enough to avoid a recurrence of the acrimonious current struggle until after the 2012 elections.

Republicans want a two-step process that would require a second vote in the midst of a campaign for control of the White House and both houses of Congress.

There were concessions from both sides embedded in the competing legislation, but they were largely obscured by the partisan rhetoric of the day.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky urged Obama to shift his position rather than "veto the country into default."

And Reid jabbed at tea party-backed Republicans who make up a significant portion of the House GOP rank and file. The Nevada Democrat warned against allowing "these extremists" to dictate the country's course.

The measure Boehner and the GOP leadership drafted in the House called for spending cuts and an increase in the debt limit to tide the Treasury over until sometime next year. A second increase in borrowing authority would hinge on approval of additional spending cuts sometime during the election year.

Across the Capitol, Reid wrote legislation that drew the president's backing, praise from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi - and criticism from Republicans.

By design or not, the two sides' harsh remarks obscured concessions that narrowed the differences among the nation's political leaders as they groped for a way to resolve the economic crisis.

With their revised plan, House Republicans backed off an earlier insistence on $6 trillion in spending cuts to raise the debt limit.

And Obama jettisoned his longstanding call for increased government revenues as part of any deficit reduction plan.

Pending the president's televised speech, the White House also declined repeatedly to say whether Obama would veto the revised House measure.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer called the proposal "not a serious attempt to avert default because it has no chance of passing the Senate."

Not all Republicans were happy with their leadership's decision to scale back legislation that had cleared the House last week, only to die in the Senate.

Among House conservatives who have provided the political muscle for the Republican drive to cut spending, the revised legislation was a disappointment. "I cannot support the plan," said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the leading advocates of legislation that cleared the House last week and died in the Senate.

But two rank-and-file Republicans said their constituents were voicing concerns other than the rising federal debt.

Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said his office is getting calls from constituents saying, "If I don't get my Social Security check, it's your fault."

Rep. Tom Reed, a New York freshman, said many of his constituents are telling him to stand firm in his drive to cut spending. "But I will admit there's some anxiety in the district" about Social Security and other programs, he added.

As Boehner readied his legislation, Senate Democratic leaders called a news conference to announce their own next steps.

The Democrats' measure would cut $2.7 trillion in federal spending and raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion in one step - enough borrowing authority to meet Obama's bottom-line demand.

The cuts include $1.2 trillion from across a range of hundreds of government programs and $1 trillion in savings assumed to derive from the end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Boehner ridiculed the $1 trillion in war savings as gimmicky, but in fact, they were contained in the budget the House passed earlier in the year.

The legislation also assumes creation of a special joint congressional committee to recommend additional savings with a guaranteed vote by Congress by the end of 2011.

Yet in the maneuvering it appeared another of the president's long-held conditions appeared to be in danger of rejection.

Neither Boehner's measure nor the one Reid was drafting included additional revenue, according to officials in both parties.

In addition to a two-step approach to raising the debt limit, the House measure would require lawmakers in both houses to vote later this year on a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget.

An earlier bill, passed in the House last week but then scuttled in the Senate, would have required Congress to approve an amendment and send it to the states for ratification.

That same bill would have made $6 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit.

Obama promised to veto that bill even before the House voted on it.

Each side offered accounts of secret maneuvering designed to put the other side in a poor light.

Democratic officials said Obama called Boehner on Saturday night, one day after the collapse of compromise talks, and offered to reduce his demand for new tax revenue by $400 billion.

In return, Obama said that he wanted Republicans to abandon their demand to cancel parts of the year-old health care law if future deficit cuts did not materialize.

This official said Boehner rejected the proposal on Sunday.

Republicans disputed that account - and offered one of their own.

In their version of events, Reid agreed on Sunday night to a two-step approach to raising the debt limit that Obama has rejected.

Democrats denied it.

None of the officials involved would agree to be quoted by name.

"Fulfilling My Destiny" Gospel Concert & Book Release (Sunday, July 24, 2011)

"Fulfilling My Destiny" Gospel Concert & Book Release (Sunday, July 24, 2011)

Couples wed on 1st day gay marriage is legal in NY

Couples wed on 1st day gay marriage is legal in NY

Phyllis Siegel, 76, right, kisses her wife Connie Kopelov, 84, after exchanging vows at the Manhattan City Clerk's office with New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn in attendance, back left, on the first day New York State's Marriage Equality Act goes into effect, on Sunday, July 24, 2011.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Hundreds of gay couples dressed in morning suits, gowns and T-shirts recited vows in emotion-choked voices and triumphantly hoisted their long-awaited marriage certificates on Sunday as New York became the sixth and largest state to recognize same-sex weddings.

Couples began saying "I do" at midnight from Niagara Falls to Long Island, though New York City became the sometimes raucous center of action by daybreak Sunday as couples waited on a sweltering day for the chance to exchange vows at the city clerk's office.

Thousands of protesters rallied in several cities around the state, a signal that the long fight for recognition may not be over just yet.

But a party atmosphere reigned in the lobby of the Manhattan clerk's office, with cheers and applause breaking out whenever a couple was handed their white-and-blue wedding certificate. Balloons floated overhead. One couple wore matching kilts; another wore sparkly crowns. Children scurried up and down the lobby; workers with bullhorns called out the numbers of each couple.

Poignant signs of pent-up emotion were common from couples who had in some cases waited for years to wed. Couples cried and voices quavered. Newlywed Douglas Robinson exclaimed, "You bet your life I do!" when asked if he would take Michael Elsasser as his spouse.

The first couple to marry in Manhattan were Phyllis Siegel, 77, and Connie Kopelov, 85, who have been together for 23 years. Kopelov arrived in a wheelchair and stood with the assistance of a walker. During the service, Siegel wrapped her hand in Kopelov's hand and they both grasped the walker.

Witnesses cheered and wiped away tears after the two women vowed to honor and cherish each other as spouses and then kissed.

"I am breathless. I almost couldn't breathe," Siegel said after the ceremony. "It's mind-boggling. The fact that's it's happening to us - that we are finally legal and can do this like everyone else."

Outside afterward, Siegel raised her arms exultantly as Kopelov, in the wheelchair, held out a marriage certificate.

New York's adoption of legal same-sex marriage is viewed as a pivotal moment in the national gay rights movement and was expected to galvanize supporters and opponents alike. The state joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, along with Washington, D.C., when it voted last month to legalize gay marriage.

Protest rallies were planned in Manhattan, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany on Sunday afternoon. Gay marriage opponents unhappy that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers legalized same-sex marriage last month are calling for a statewide referendum on the issue.

Several hundred people crowded into the street across from Cuomo's Manhattan office to protest the new law. They waved signs saying "Excommunicate Cuomo" and chanted "Let the people vote!"

"I'm here for God's sake," said Steve Rosner, 65, of the Lower East Side. "To sanctify same-sex marriage is an abomination. It's beyond belief."

Hundreds more protested on the steps of Buffalo's City Hall and at the state Capitol in Albany.

Clerks in New York City and about a dozen other cities statewide opened their doors Sunday to cater to same-sex couples. In New York City and other locations, judges waived a mandatory 24-hour waiting period that allowed couples to exchange vows moments after receiving their licenses.

In Manhasset on Long Island, Dina Mazzaferro and Robin Leopold of Great Neck got married in the North Hempstead town clerk's office with their 8-year-old daughter, Sasha, and Robin's mother, Barbara, watching. The elder woman wiped away tears during the brief ceremony while Sasha mouthed some of the words along with her parents.

The couple has been together 15 years.

"We've been waiting for this day," Leopold, an attorney who works in the Queens district attorney's office, said after the service. "And now we're waiting for the day it becomes legal on a federal level. It's a wonderful thing that the town has been so embracing of this."

Across the state in Buffalo, the first in line were Daniel Rodgers, 54, and Scott Klaurens, 40, who were married in shorts, T-shirts and sneakers. They had gone expecting only to get a license and planned to wed Tuesday, but were told they could go ahead Sunday because of their marriage six years ago in Toronto.

"This is just a flower opening up for us and everyone else, a flower of equality," Rodgers said.

At Buffalo City Hall, City Clerk Gerald Chwalinski zipped a black robe over his shorts and golf shirt and spent three hours marrying couples in the ornate City Council chambers. His office issued 20 licenses and performed 8 ceremonies in the three hours it was open for the occasion Sunday.

In Syracuse, officials issued licenses to 25 same-sex couples and eight of them were granted waivers. Of the 15 same-sex couples granted licenses in Binghamton, one was from neighboring Pennsylvania and three were from New York City; five of those couples were getting married Sunday.

Initially, New York City officials had projected that about 2,500 couples might show up at the city clerk's offices hoping to get married on Sunday, but by the time a 48-hour lottery had drawn to a close on Thursday, 823 couples had signed up - 59 more than the city had planned to accommodate. The city said it would perform ceremonies for all 823.

The festive atmosphere included couples who posed for pictures in front of a photo backdrop of City Hall and bought T-shirts saying "I got married in New York City" from the clerk's office gift shop. In Brooklyn, an elegant reception was held in Borough Hall with champagne and a lineup of cakes - one with a two-men cake topper, another with two women and a third with a heterosexual couple.

There were some glitches, though. In Brooklyn, Eufemio Torres and John Torres were told incorrectly by a city employee that they could not wed Sunday because Eufemio had only a Mexican passport.

"Our hearts sank. But I'm a fighter, and we were not going home," said John Torres, a legal secretary.

Soon after speaking with the Brooklyn borough president's chief of staff, the pair stood before a judge in the hall's elaborately wood-carved main chamber. Eufemio Torres cradled a bouquet of white lilies and orchids, and the men took their wedding vows.

The day began with some couples exchanging vows right after midnight. In Niagara Falls, gay rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were legally married the very first moment they could be during a midnight ceremony.

With the rainbow-lit falls as a backdrop, Lambert, 54, and Rudd, 53, were among the first gay couples to tie the knot with the blessing of the state. Lambert and Rudd, who have 12 grandchildren between them, have been together for more than a decade and had long been fighting for the right to marry.

The couple, both from Buffalo, smiled broadly as they exchanged traditional marriage vows, promising to love and cherish each other in sickness and in health. A crowd of several hundred people cheered as they were pronounced married and shared their first kiss.

"What an incredible night this was," said Lambert, who wore an electric blue satin gown with a sequined train for the ceremony and carried a bouquet of blue hydrangeas. "Everything was absolutely perfect."

In Albany, Mayor Jerry Jennings performed marriages at 12:01 a.m. Sunday in the Common Council's chambers.

Boehner: GOP ready to act alone on debt deal

Boehner: GOP ready to act alone on debt deal

In this photo provided by NBC News, White House Chief of Staff William Daley appears on NBC's "Meet the Press" in Washington Sunday, July 24, 2011. Congressional leaders in Washington planned to work on a fiercely hot Sunday to try to reach a bipartisan accord to avert a debt-ceiling crisis on Aug. 2.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scrambling to head off disaster, House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday readied a plan to prevent the first government default in U.S. history and said Republicans would act alone if Democrats didn't go along. The White House said President Barack Obama would veto a plan that failed to extend the nation's borrowing power into 2013 as time for action drew dangerously close.

On a day of deepening tension, Boehner hoped to outline at least a framework of a deal by 4 p.m. EDT that could get through a divided Congress and avert panic before Asian financial markets opened hours later. The government is on pace to run out of money to pay its bills unless the debt cap is raised by Aug. 2.

Boehner's plan, still under negotiation on Capitol Hill, would likely cut spending by at least $1 trillion and extend the federal borrowing limit by a slightly smaller dollar amount, into 2012. That's intended to get the nation beyond this crisis and snag enough votes from House Republicans who won't raise the debt limit without spending cuts, too.

"I would prefer to have a bipartisan approach to solve this problem. If that is not possible, I and my Republican colleagues in the House are prepared to move on our own," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

Deeper and more complex reductions in the nation's deficits would be part of the deal, but under later timelines.

White House chief of staff William Daley said Obama is insisting that any package must expand the debt ceiling beyond the next presidential and congressional elections and into 2013 to provide economic certainty. Daley said anything short would be a gimmick and prompt the world to say: "These people just can't get their act together."

White House and congressional leaders talked past each other on the Sunday talks shows as negotiations unfolded in secrecy.

"There will be a two-stage process. It's just not physically possible to do all of this in one step," Boehner said amid White House insistence that the debt limit be extended beyond 2012. "I know the president is worried about his next election. But, my God, shouldn't he be worried about the country?"

Boehner planned to update Republican House members at 4:30 p.m. EDT. Republican leaders called the rank-and-file back to Washington earlier than expected for the new work week and set a mid-afternoon Monday meeting to go over the debt-limit legislation.

With an eye on the financial markets, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner insisted anew that United States would not default.

"It's just unthinkable," Geithner said. "We never do that. It's not going to happen."

The debt deal-making has consumed Washington for weeks and put on display a government that at times risks utter dysfunction.

Even after talks about between Obama and Boehner broke down in spectacular fashion Friday, Geithner said the two men were still negotiating.

He also suggested the ambitious framework the two leaders had discussed, targeting a deficit reduction of $4 trillion, remained under consideration.

"I don't know. It may be pretty hard to put Humpty Dumpty back together again," Boehner said of that grand plan. "But my last offer is still out there. I have never taken my last offer off of the table and they never agreed to my last offer."

That last offer included $800 billion in new tax revenues as part of a broad reform that would lower tax rates. Obama wanted $400 billion more in tax revenue for deficit reduction to help balance out the spending cuts, he said. Or, if not that, a reduction in some of the proposed cuts being discussed to entitlement programs such as Medicare.

The talks halted primarily over that issue and over how to ensure that both parties kept their reform promises in the months ahead.

Staff members of the congressional leaders from both parties were working to come up with an emergency plan.

Boehner said he wanted it a bipartisanship approach but was ready to move ahead if that didn't happen.

Any plan must get through the Democratic-run Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has called a short-term debt limit expansion unacceptable.

Obama's role looms, too.

Asked if Obama would veto a plan that did not extend the government's borrowing authority into 2013, Daley said, "Yes."

One key Republican lawmaker scoffed at the administration's opposition to a debt-ceiling plan that doesn't last into 2013.

"I think that's a ridiculous position because that's what he's going to get presented with," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

Under any scenario, Washington's leaders have run themselves almost out of time.

It will take days to move legislation through Congress. A default could cause catastrophic damage to the standing and the economy of the United States.

Daley said, in fact, the consequences are already taking hold.

"I don't think there's any question there's been enormous damage done to our credit-worthiness around the world," Daley said.

Boehner appeared on "Fox News Sunday." Geithner was on Fox, ABC's "This Week" and CNN's "State of the Union." Daley and Coburn spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press," and Daley also appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Norway gunman fired for 1.5 hours on island

Norway gunman fired for 1.5 hours on island

Unidentified survivers from the shooting at an island youth retreat react outside a hotel where survivors were being reunited with their families in Sundvolden, Norway, Saturday, July 23, 2011. The 32-year-old man suspected in bomb and shooting attacks that killed at least 91 people in Norway bought six tons of fertilizer before the massacres, the supplier said Saturday as police investigated witness accounts of a second shooter. Norway's prime minister and royal family visited grieving relatives of the scores of youth gunned down in a horrific killing spree on an idyllic island retreat.

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- A gunman who opened fire on an island teeming with young people kept shooting for 1.5 hours before surrendering to a SWAT team, which arrived 40 minutes after they were called, police said Saturday.

Survivors of the shooting spree have described hiding and fleeing into the water to escape the gunman, but a police briefing Saturday detailed for the first time how long the terror lasted - and how long victims waited for help.

When the SWAT team arrived, the gunman, who had two firearms, surrendered, said Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim.

"There were problems with transport to Utoya" island, where the youth-wing of Norway's Labor Party was holding a retreat, Sponheim said. "It was difficult to get a hold of boats, but that problem was solved when the SWAT team arrived."

At least 85 people were killed on the island, but police said four or five people were still missing. Divers have been searching the waters around the island.

The attack followed a bombing at a government building in Oslo, where seven people were killed. Police are still digging through rubble there, and Sponheim said body parts remain in the building.

Police have not identified the suspect, but Norwegian national broadcaster NRK say he is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik. Authorities have not identified a motive but have said he visited Christian fundamentalist websites and once belonged to the youth-wing of a rightist party.

Police said he is talking to them and has admitted to firing weapons on the island. It was not clear if he had confessed to anything else he is accused of. Police said he retained a lawyer, but the attorney did not want to be named.

"He has had a dialogue with the police the whole time, but he's a very demanding suspect," Sponheim said.

Norway's royal family and prime minister led the nation in mourning, visiting grieving relatives of the scores of youth gunned down.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the twin attacks made Friday peacetime Norway's deadliest day.

"This is beyond comprehension. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends," Stoltenberg told reporters earlier Saturday.

Obama ends gays in military ban

Obama ends gays in military ban

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta walks out to greet John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, at the Pentagon Thursday, July 21, 2011 in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Friday formally enacted the end to the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

The president joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, the joint chiefs of staff chairman, in signing a notice and sending it to Congress certifying that military readiness would not be hurt by repealing the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

That means that 60 days from now the ban will be lifted, fulfilling Obama's 2008 campaign promise to the gay community.

"As commander in chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness," Obama said in a statement.

"Today's action follows extensive training of our military personnel and certification by Secretary Panetta and Admiral Mullen that our military is ready for repeal. As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country."

Norway ripped by Oslo bomb, youth camp shootings

Norway ripped by Oslo bomb, youth camp shootings

CORRECTS YEAR Debris covers the area outside a building in the centre of Oslo, Friday July 22, 2011, following an explosion that tore open several buildings including the prime minister's office, shattering windows and covering the street with documents

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- A bomb ripped open buildings in the heart of Norway's government Friday, and a man dressed as a police officer opened fire at an island youth camp connected to the ruling party. At least seven people were killed in the blast and nine more in the camp shootings, the peaceful nation's worst violence since World War II.

Oslo police said 9 or 10 people were killed at the camp on Utoya island, where the youth wing of the Labor Party was holding a summer camp for hundreds of youths. Acting Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim says a man was arrested in the shooting, and the suspect had been observed in Oslo before the explosion there.

Sponheim said police were still trying to get an overview of the camp shooting and could not say whether there was more than one shooter.

Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. Behind them, people stripped down to their underwear swam away from the island toward shore, some using flotation devices.

In Oslo, the capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, the bombing left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings.

Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise where Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his administration work were shattered. Other buildings damaged house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway's leading newspapers.

Stoltenberg was working at home Friday and was unharmed, according to senior adviser Oivind Ostang.

Oslo University Hospital said 12 people were admitted for treatment following the Utoya shooting, and 11 people were taken there from the explosion in Oslo. The hospital asked people to donate blood.

The attacks formed the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the 2005 London bombings, which killed 52 people.

Sponheim wouldn't give any details about the shooting suspect, who he said was dressed in a police uniform when he opened fire into a crowd of youths.

A spokesman for Stoltenberg's Labor Party, Per Gunnar Dahl, said he couldn't confirm that there were fatalities at Utoya, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Oslo. The party's youth wing organizes an annual summer camp on the island, and Stoltenberg had been scheduled to speak there Saturday.

"There are at least five people who have been seriously wounded and have been transported to a local hospital," Dahl said. He said the shooting "created a panic situation where people started to swim from the island" to escape.

Police blocked off roads leading to the lake around Utoya. An AP reporter was turned away by police about 5-6 kilometers from the lake, as eight ambulances with sirens blaring entered the area.

In Oslo, police said the explosion was caused by "one or more" bombs, but declined to speculate on who was behind the attack. They later sealed off the nearby offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package.

Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel, said the building "shook as if it had been struck by lightning or an earthquake." He looked outside and saw "a wall of debris and smoke."

Dutton, who is from New York, said the scene reminded him of Sept. 11 - people "just covered in rubble" walking through "a fog of debris."

"It wasn't any sort of a panic," he said, "It was really just people in disbelief and shock, especially in a such as safe and open country as Norway, you don't even think something like that is possible."

Public broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris. An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees were evacuated. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.

The explosion occurred at 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT), as Ole Tommy Pedersen stood at a bus stop 100 meters (yards) away.

"I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later," Pedersen told AP.

At Utoya, Emilie Bersaas, identified by Sky News television as one of the youths on the island, said she ran inside a school building and hid under a bed when the shooting broke out.

"At one point the shooting was very, very close (to) the building, I think actually it actually hit the building one time, and the people in the next room screamed very loud," she said.

"I laid under the bed for two hours and then the police smashed a window and came in," Bersaas said. "It seems kind of unreal, especially in Norway. This is not something that could happen here, this is something you hear about happening in the U.S."

Another youth at the camp, Niclas Tokerud, stayed in touch with his sister through the attack through text messages.

"He sent me a text saying 'there's been gunshots. I am scared (expletive). But I am hiding and safe. I love you,'" said Nadia Tokerud, a 25-year-old graphic designer in Hokksund, Norway.

As he boarded a boat from the island after the danger had passed he sent one more text: "I'm safe."

The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."

"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.

Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

The U.S. Embassy in Norway warned Americans to avoid downtown Oslo.

The attacks come as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar - the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam - made to various news media, including American network NBC.

Terrorism has also been a concern in neighboring Denmark since an uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad six years ago. Danish authorities say they have foiled several terror plots linked to the 2005 newspaper cartoons that triggered protests in Muslim countries. Last month, a Danish appeals court on Wednesday sentenced a Somali man to 10 years in prison for breaking into the home of the cartoonist.

Europe has been the target of numerous terror plots by Islamist militants. The deadliest was the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when shrapnel-filled bombs exploded, killing 191 people and wounding about 1,800. A year later, suicide bombers killed 52 rush-hour commuters in London aboard three subway trains and a bus. And in 2006, U.S. and British intelligence officials thwarted one of the largest plots yet - a plan to explode nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic airliners.

In October, the U.S. State Department advised American citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions following reports that terrorists may be plotting attacks on a European city. Some countries went on heightened alert after the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden.