As divisions over majorreductions in federal budget deficits solidify, President BarackObama and members of Congress on Thursday began weighing limitedsteps that might be brokered in a bipartisan deal later thisyear.
Obama spent much of Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill,first meeting with Republican senators and then huddling withfellow Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Despite nearly two weeks of outreach to lawmakers, Obamaseemed no closer to an agreement with Republicans on a largedeficit reduction deal by midyear.
Instead, Republicans and Obama's Democratic allies inCongress engaged in partisan rhetoric, even as the president wasstriking a moderate tone in his private meetings with Republicansenators.
(Read More: Obama: Political Gap May Be 'Just Too Wide' for Deal)
"The president's idea of compromise is, 'Just do it my way.'That's just not going to work," Republican House Speaker JohnBoehner told reporters.
Obama has been calling for more tax hikes on the wealthiesttaxpayers, coupled with new spending cuts, to help curb budgetdeficits that have exceeded $1 trillion in each of the past fouryears, in part because of the weak economy.
"No more tax hikes," Boehner added, referring to the morethan $600 billion in new revenues Obama won at the beginning ofthis year by raising income taxes on the wealthy.
The Democratic-controlled Senate Budget Committee was ontrack on Thursday to pass a budget plan that calls for $1trillion in new tax revenues by ending tax breaks for thehighest earners and corporations, while replacing automaticspending cuts and making modest cuts elsewhere.
Republican Paul Ryan's budget, passed by the House ofRepresentatives budget panel on Wednesday, aims to slash $4.6trillion largely from social programs to reach balance by 2023.It contains no new tax revenues.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, noting the yawning gapbetween her party and Republicans on the functions ofgovernment, told reporters: "This is a bigger difference than Ihave seen ... well I've never seen anything quite like it. Idon't think anybody has seen anything quite like it."
Some lawmakers have begun hinting at more incremental stepsif Republicans cannot swallow any more tax hikes for deficitreduction and Democrats cannot deliver on the "entitlement"program reforms Obama has dangled.
The latter could include changes to the Social Securityretirement program and Medicare and Medicaid healthcare for theelderly, disabled and poor.
"You set aside differences and you find where you can worktogether. That's what we ought to be doing," House MajorityLeader Eric Cantor said on Wednesday after his fellowRepublicans met privately with Obama.
A senior House Republican aide said one such idea wascutting federal workers' pensions, putting them more in linewith private-sector retirement funds. Democrats in the past haveacknowledged that is an area that could be ripe for reform.
Pelosi and Senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking SenateDemocrat, both expressed a willingness to look at changes to howcost-of-living benefit increases are calculated in order to savemoney.
"I'd have to say if we can demonstrate that it doesn't hurtthe poor and the very elderly, let's take a look at it," Pelositold reporters.
Durbin warned that "some senators will never, ever consider" the change, which is called "chained CPI." But he too said it was "worth looking at" as part of any effort to restore the solvency of Social Security.
An estimated $340 billion could be saved over 10 years with the new method for calculating cost-of-living increases that proponents say takes into account more real-world estimates of the cost of consumer goods.
Part of the budget savings also would come from higher revenues collected as tax bracket thresholds fail to keep pace as closely as they do now with rising incomes.
Some Worry About Small Deal
As chances dim for a comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code as part of this year's budget negotiations, Obama has told Republicans in both chambers that he favors a revenue-neutral reform of corporate taxes.
That conversation went a step further on Thursday when the president and Republican senators talked about the possibility of doing corporate tax reform as a stand-alone fix, instead of folding it into more far-reaching reforms as had been assumed.
All the talk of limited steps has some lawmakers worried.
Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a former Bush administration budget director, told Reuters that a deficit-reduction deal of between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion was the minimum necessary to stabilize the nation's debt at a safe level. That would be on top of the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over 10 years that began to take hold on March 1.
"A lot of people are talking about a lot less than that," Portman said.
Obama embarked on his private sessions with Republicans after a couple of them signaled a willingness to accept higher taxes to help reduce budget deficits.
One congressional aide said the intimate meetings were aimed at gauging just how deep support might be among congressional Republicans.
(Read More: Obama Presses Congress for Deal to End US Spending Cuts)
Obama got a bleak assessment last Saturday night during an annual white-tie dinner held by the Gridiron Club, a Washington press organization. He was seen holding a sustained conversation at the event with House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy.
A source who asked not to be identified said McCarthy thanked the president for reaching out to Republicans on the budget issue. Obama, the source said, told McCarthy he would talk to more people than just Boehner, a change from previous budget negotiations.
McCarthy then told Obama, according to the source, "'It doesn't matter who you talk to, if you keep talking about tax revenues, you're going to get the same answer."
That answer appears to be "no."