Biden Launches Debt Talks

Politico reports:

With a deadline pressing, Vice President Joe Biden gathered a bipartisan group of lawmakers at Blair House Thursday with hopes for striking a deal on deficit and debt — even as congressional leaders continued to stand partisan ground outside the negotiating room.

On a clear, sunny morning, Biden strolled purposefully from the White House to the nearby Blair House for the session — which lasted about two hours — and told lawmakers at the table he “didn’t want to talk about differences today, only what they had in common,” according to a source briefed on the meeting.

For the first 10 minutes of the meeting, Biden kicked the staff members out of the room who had accompanied the lawmakers to the talks.

In opening remarks, Biden said a major purpose of the first meeting is to “make sure each of us understands where the other guy is coming from.”

“I’m optimistic,” Biden said, adding the caveat as a long-time member of Congress, he’s always optimistic.

The negotiators were also briefed on President Barack Obama’s goals. During the meeting, OMB Director Jacob Lew said the White House wants to find a way to reduce the deficit to 2.8 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product by 2015.

Everyone in the room agreed that Biden would be the spokesman for the group, and lawmakers were tight-lipped upon returning to the Hill. Most would only speak generally, noting that the meeting was “good” or “productive.” Staff for the negotiators then met in the Capitol at 3 p.m. to set the agenda for the group’s next meeting, which is slated for Tuesday.

“We had a good, productive first meeting today,” Biden said after the meeting concluded. “We plan to meet again on Tuesday and look forward to further discussions on these important challenges.”

Walking through the Senate’s carriage entrance on the first floor of the Capitol, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) —the Senate GOP’s lead negotiator — characterized the gathering as a series of presentation’s by the “vice president’s folks” followed by a “free-flowing discussion” between those in the room.

At issue is the nation’s debt limit, currently set to max out at $14.3 trillion. Obama wants Congress to raise it so the government can keep borrowing to meet its obligations to borrowers, and for beneficiaries of programs including Social Security. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner earlier this week bumped the deadline back for raising the debt ceiling to Aug. 2, giving some breathing room for negotiations.

In the meeting Thursday, Geithner briefed lawmakers about the effects of deficit reduction on the market and the Standard and Poor’s rankings, while Lew discussed Medicare savings and fixing alternative minimum tax — a government fee on individuals, corporations, estates and trusts imposed over regular taxes — which Lew said needed to be offset.

At Blair House, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Kyl of Arizona joined four Democrats, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana, Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, for the session with Biden. Also in the meeting are Geithner, Lew, economic adviser Gene Sperling and other administration fiscal advisers.

Before the group could even meet, the administration was downplaying expectations for a deal right away, saying the two sides start out far apart and have significant issues to resolve before a deal can be achieved.