Deficit committee locked in budget stalemate

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/11/17/us-usa-debt-supercommittee-idUKTRE7AC0LS20111117

(Reuters) - Budget talks in the Congress were locked in stalemate on Wednesday amid the disclosure of a Democratic offer last week that drew no Republican interest.

With a deadline less than a week away, members of a 12-member "super committee" tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in budget savings over 10 years confronted the same barriers that have thwarted earlier efforts to rein in the growing national debt, which crossed the $15 trillion mark on Tuesday.

Aides with knowledge of the negotiations said Democrats, in an attempt to break the deadlock, offered to embrace some Republican proposals including about $876 billion in new spending cuts coupled with about $400 billion in tax revenues through individual and corporate tax reform.

That represents a considerable shift from an earlier Democratic proposal that sought about $1 trillion in new tax revenues.