WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Both sides of the US Congress’ deadlocked “super committee” held separate talks yesterday, but formal negotiations remained stalled, reaffirming gloomy predictions that the deficit-fighting panel may fail.
With a midnight Wednesday deadline fast approaching, the panel’s six Republican and six Democratic members were still far apart on how to achieve their goal of finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings over the next 10 years.
The Republican members held a morning conference call among themselves yesterday, but details about what was said on it were not immediately available, aides said.
Having rejected the latest Republican offer, the six Democrats were holding only private conversations this weekend, with no group meetings planned, aides said. “The question is, is there anything more we can do with that or anything else,” Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican member of the committee, told reporters yesterday. “We’re still talking, still trying to figure something out.”
The corridors of Congress were largely empty yesterday. Most super committee members were in Washington, but only Kyl was seen by reporters in his Capitol Hill office.
In marked contrast to the secrecy that has surrounded much of the committee’s deliberations, six panel members were due to appear today on television political talk shows. In recent days, both sides have engaged in a blame game, positioning themselves for the fallout that could result from failure.
