How the Obama-Boehner debt talks collapsed - Los Angeles Times

President Obama believed that a deal was in sight when he spoke to House Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday afternoon to work through some sticking points in the tense negotiations over raising the nation's debt ceiling. Would Boehner think it over and call back?

But the call never came. That in itself was unusual; Boehner always returned Obama's calls, a White House aide said.

At 3:30 p.m. Friday, an ominous email came to the White House from Boehner's office. Could the two men talk in two hours? The White House phoned and asked if they could talk right away.

No, came the response — 5:30 p.m. It was taken as another bad sign.

Just how bad became clear when the two men finally spoke, and Boehner said he was through talking to the White House.

For months, administration officials had been meeting privately with Republican leaders, striving for a broad deficit reduction package and a crucial vote to raise the federal debt ceiling.

Twice before, Republican leaders had walked away from the grand bargain that Obama envisioned.

But the two sides kept talking, and aides on both sides of the debate provided details of the last week's events on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly.

On Friday, July 15, it seemed the perseverance had paid off.

That day, GOP leaders invited White House officials to Capitol Hill for a private meeting. On the White House side were Chief of Staff William Daley and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Representing the House were Boehner and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the majority leader who has taken a leading role among the conservative flank.

The Republicans made an offer: between $3 trillion and $3.5 trillion in spending reductions, and nearly $800 billion in revenue increases over 10 years through overhauling the tax code. Geithner and Daley took it back to the White House.

On Sunday, Boehner and Cantor were invited to the White House for a private, unannounced meeting with Geithner, Daley and Jacob Lew, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Obama, who was at church that morning, popped in a couple of times.

The White House was agreeable to parts of the deal — notably, the proposal for nearly $800 billion in added tax revenue.

"They were willing to accept our number," the GOP aide said. The group also talked about overhauling the tax code.

"We walked out of the room thinking we were making good progress on the tax reform," the aide said.

The meeting did not become public until Monday, and even then, the proposal was not disclosed.

On Monday, Republicans said they were waiting for the White House to provide a counteroffer on ways to make sure Congress would take up tax reform.

One way to do it would be to have a "trigger" in any debt ceiling legislation providing that if Congress did not act on tax reform, then tax cuts for the wealthy put into effect under the George W. Bush administration would expire.

The next day, however, a bipartisan group of senators referred to as the Gang of Six unveiled its own deficit reduction proposal that included more than $1 trillion in tax revenue.