For 9 long months Republicans and Democrats in the Senate negotiated a deal regarding health care reform, however, every time there were reports that a deal was close the Republicans would make another demand that pushed the legislation farther away from a deal. Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) is suspected of being the primary reason behind no deal being reached as Republicans were eager to deny the new President a victory of such magnitude.
Now we have another bipartisan group of Senators, the so called "Gang of Six" who have been meeting for the past six months trying to get a deal on a Grand Bargain to significantly cut deficits and put the US on a path to get it's fiscal house in order. However, now we have reporting that on the Republican side the Senators have been giving regular updates to Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) who is coming off a very contentious fight with the White House regarding 2011 spending and has pledged to not support any tax increases to lower the deficit. It sounds like the Republicans may be up to their old tricks, however the jury is still out.
There has been a lot of reporting for example here, that the Gang of Six needs to wrap up there negotiations in light of the President's idea to get a bicameral working group to start hammering out a deal for 2011. The President wants 4 members from each party in the House and Senate to start negotiating a deal to raise the debt limit, get a 2012 budget, and determine spending and revenue targets that will bring down deficits over the long term.
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