White House Sees Date for Budget Deal or Bust

The July 22 date looms large, the officials said, because it will take lawmakers at least a week to draft a bill and get it through two houses before Aug. 2. That is the day when, officials say, the government will reach its debt ceiling and no longer be able to borrow what it needs to keep operating and repay existing debt.

President Obama challenged Republicans on Wednesday to accept higher taxes as part of any package to reduce the deficit, a challenge that House Speaker John A. Boehner swiftly rejected. But underneath these fixed positions, the Democratic officials said, were hints of Republican flexibility, which gives the White House hope that it can strike a deal, albeit probably at the last minute.

While they emphasized that no agreement had been reached on any major items, the officials said the two parties were coalescing around $200 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, trims that Mr. Obama has held up as an example of cuts that will inflict pain on his Democratic base.

The officials also noted that while Republican leaders like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had ruled out tax increases, they had sometimes used the phrase “tax rates” — which the White House also does not want to raise. The Republicans, they said, have not explicitly ruled out other measures that would generate revenue, like ending tax breaks and loopholes on hedge funds or for the owners of corporate jets — an interpretation of the Republican position that few Republicans would agree with at this stage.

These tax-related measures being pushed by the White House would generate about $130 billion, a fraction of the roughly $2 trillion in savings over a decade that the White House and Republicans agree is necessary to stave off a debt crisis.

While Republican leaders have not shown enthusiasm for any of these measures, the Democratic officials said, they recognize that passing a bill without some concessions to House Democrats will be difficult, since House Republicans will not be able to corral enough votes on their own to pass a deficit-reduction package.

In his news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Obama chided lawmakers for leaving Washington with a deal undone, comparing them unfavorably to his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who he said finish their homework a day in advance. That rankled some on Capitol Hill, though his words appeared to have hit home.

“We should take responsibility seriously,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said Thursday morning on the Senate floor in announcing the cancellation of the recess next week. “I’m confident we do.”

The Senate has scheduled a flurry of meetings next week, with Mr. Reid inviting Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to meet with Democrats on Wednesday. The next day, the White House plans to send its economic team to brief Democrats on the state of the negotiations.

Democrats, echoing the president, continued to insist that tax-related revenue would have to be part of the deal.

“We need a willingness on both sides to give a little,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. “We’ve given a lot. The vice president has said more than $1 billion in cuts has already been identified. And that would put us far down the road towards an agreement. The question is how to make up the rest.”

Under the rubric of all revenue is personal, Democrats called for the elimination of $126 million in annual tax breaks for the horse-racing industry that Mr. McConnell secured in the 2008 farm bill.

Democrats dismissed complaints that Mr. Obama had been overly combative, noting that Republicans had demanded that he engage in the bargaining process, and then criticized him as soon as he did.

But Republicans were evidently still smarting from Mr. Obama’s chiding tone. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas even suggested that the president needed some sedation before he resumed discussions with them.

“I remember when he talked to Republicans before, and all we got was a lecture,” Mr. Roberts said. “So maybe if he would just take a Valium and calm down and come down and talk to us, it might be helpful.”

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House Panel Members Joust Over Border Gun Program

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats on the House oversight committee this week intensified their efforts to shape the narrative surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the border-security strategy that allowed guns to be shipped illegally into Mexico in an effort to track them to drug cartels.

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Democrats, who held an unofficial hearing on Thursday on the now-defunct operation of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have focused on what they see as a lapse in American laws involving firearms purchases. Republicans, led by Representative Darrell E. Issa, the chairman of the oversight committee, are pushing to blame high-ranking officials in the Obama administration for the operation.

This week Mr. Issa said he believed that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. lied when he testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee in May that he had learned just weeks earlier about the operation, which was begun in 2009 in the Phoenix office of the A.T.F. Asked about the issue at a news conference on Wednesday, President Obama said he believed Mr. Holder.

The operation came under criticism after two guns tied to the program were found at the scene of the 2010 murder of an American Border Patrol agent, Brian A. Terry, in Arizona. Congressional committees and the Justice Department, which houses the A.T.F., are investigating.

Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the oversight committee, scheduled Thursday’s hearing after Mr. Issa blocked Democrats from questioning witnesses at a June 15 hearing about gun laws, saying the issue was outside the scope of the session.

On Thursday, Mr. Cummings, of Maryland, said the issue was relevant, contending that lax federal and Arizona laws made it harder to track and prosecute those suspected of being “straw purchasers” who buy weapons for drug cartels.

Law enforcement agents “should not have to bend over backward to imprison those who provide military-grade weapons to murderers,” he said.

Mr. Issa, a California Republican, accused the Democrats on his committee of introducing partisanship into the debate.

“This is a predictable maneuver from a minority that has sought to obstruct the investigation into Justice Department-sanctioned gun-walking,” he said Thursday in a statement. At the June 15 hearing, Mr. Issa released copies of e-mails appearing to show that the A.T.F.’s acting director, Kenneth E. Melson, had closely monitored the operation. This week the Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Mr. Melson would testify in July at a hearing on Fast and Furious.

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Man is charged after house siege

 8 May 2011 Last updated at 22:25 GMT  Norfolk Police had set up a cordon in the street in Costessey A man shot with a Taser at the end of a two-day armed siege on an estate near Norwich has been charged with firearms offences.

Norfolk Police said the stand-off at a house in Costessey ended on Saturday, after 32 hours of negotiations.

Police were called at 0900 BST on Friday following reports of a man with a gun. A second man and a woman were also inside the house.

An area around Badger Road had been cordoned off since Friday.

Specialist firearms officers, dog handlers and police negotiators were involved in the stand-off after a call was received by a concerned member of the public.

A police spokesman said: "Following lengthy negotiations the three occupants came out of the property one-by-one at about 5pm.

"The final man aged in his 40s, who is believed to have instigated the incident, was Tasered to effect a safe and secure arrest."

The man was charged with two counts of possession of an air weapon with intent to cause fear or violence. He is due before Norwich magistrates on Monday.

A man and woman in their 40s were bailed after being arrested on suspicion of wasting police time.