WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- A 75-minute meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and House and Senate leaders Sunday evening failed to produce a breakthrough on budget and debt issues.
Obama will hold a news conference on the impasse Monday morning.
Later in the day he and Vice President Joe Biden will meet with congressional leaders at the White House again "to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction," the White House said in a release after the Sunday session failed to arrive at a wide-ranging agreement on raising the debt ceiling, cutting spending and raising taxes.
Obama and Biden are to get together with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Asked by a reporter just before the top-level detente between the president, Reid and Boehner began Sunday whether a deal could be reached in 10 days, Obama replied, "We need to."
Obama has been pursuing an agreement that would combine raising the federal debt ceiling with a package of budget cuts and tax hikes. However, Republican lawmakers have been holding firm against any deal that includes a net increase in taxes.
Obama, Reid and Boehner were dressed casually, with open collar shirts and blazers as they met for their negotiating session that took place behind closed doors in the Cabinet room at the White House just a day after both sides had indicated they remained at loggerheads.
Boehner had said late Saturday that efforts to reach agreement on up to $4 trillion in cuts ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling had been unsuccessful. "Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," Boehner said at that time. "I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase."
Biden had negotiated about $2 trillion in cuts.
A White House spokesman, Dan Pfeiffer, had said in a statement Saturday night Obama was resisting putting all of the burden on seniors and the middle class and was still seeking "a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree."
The parties are trying to hammer out a deal several days ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline to give Congress time to review it before voting.
