White House Signals It May Accept a Smaller Debt Ceiling Deal

From the NY Post:

The White House yesterday cracked the door open for a smaller, GOP-backed debt-limit deal to avert a looming financial crisis.

Statements made by a top aide show that for the first time, the administration could back off its hard-line demands for a large, sweeping deal to increase the debt limit.

For weeks, President Obama has touted a massive $4 trillion plan that would hike taxes, increase spending cuts and overhaul Social Security and Medicaid.

House GOP leaders instead offered a smaller deal with only spending cuts that would increase the debt limit by $2.4 trillion, just enough to last until after the 2012 elections.

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“The markets will understand moving as far as we can. What would be hard to explain is doing nothing,” White House budget chief Jack Lew said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

There was “activity and progress” in talks among Senate leaders “to make sure that, at a minimum, Congress has a way to take action and avoid default on the US debt,” Lew added.