Obama casts doubt on budget deal hopes Barack Obama threw cold water on the prospects of a new grand bargain to reduce US deficits, saying Republicans and Democrats - who each released competing budget proposals this week - could be too distant to strike an agreement. I am prepared to do some tough stuff. Neither side's going to get 100 per cent. That's what the American people are looking for," Mr Obama said in an interview on ABC. "But ultimately, it may be that the differences are just too wide," he later added. Mr Obama's remarks were delivered in the middle of a rare three-day push by the president to meet lawmakers from both major political parties in the US to see if any common ground is possible to end the country's budget wars. But his engagement has come as Republicans in the House of Representatives and Democrats in the Senate each presented sharply divergent budgets for 2014, reflecting dramatically different visions of US fiscal policy and offering little scope for compromise. On Wednesday afternoon, Mr Obama's Democratic allies who control the Senate were set to propose their budget proposal for the first time in four years - a process they had shied away from for fear that it could expose them to Republican attacks on specific policies. Patty Murray, the new chair of the budget committee from Washington state and a rising star within the Democratic leadership, drew up a fiscal package that includes, over a decade, $975bn in new tax increases, $975bn in spending cuts and $100bn in new stimulus. This would help replace sequestration - the $1.2tn in automatic budget cuts that took effect in early March - and leave some extra money for further deficit reduction. "We believe that in order to truly tackle our economic and fiscal challenges in the real world, and not just make them disappear on paper, we need a strong foundation for growth built from the middle out," said Ms Murray, claiming support from the "vast majority of the American people" for mixing spending cuts and tax increases. "Senator Murray's plan - the Democratic plan - will cut wasteful spending, reduce the deficit and close tax loopholes that benefit the rich," said Harry Reid, the majority leader. And it will invest in the things that help our economy grow - education, preventive healthcare, worker training and roads and bridges. But Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, lashed out at the Democratic budget, saying it was an "extreme liberal" document that would "entrench government waste and cronyism, rather than root it out." The Democratic plan is expected to stabilise US debt levels over time. However, it does not seek to balance the budget within a decade as House Republicans are calling for. Led by Paul Ryan, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee, they presented their own budget on Tuesday which avoids any tax increases but slashes $4.6tn from spending over the next 10 years, with nearly half the savings coming from government healthcare programmes and other social safety net measures. Mr Ryan's budget also seeks to protect the Pentagon from further cuts, shielding it entirely from sequestration with that burden falling to other domestic agencies. Democrats want to cut sequestration in half for the Pentagon, but not eliminate it entirely. Both plans are expected to pass their respective chambers, but are unlikely to be reconciled into a single budget resolution that could be the basis for a bipartisan deal. In the short term, Congress is still expected to avoid a government shutdown and keep federal agencies funded through the end of the fiscal year. But lawmakers will have to reach a broader deal by July or August - when the US borrowing limit will have to be raised - or risk a new brush with default on US debt. The relatively smaller improvement in the outlook for hiring, however, may reflect ongoing uncertainty and a wait-and-see attitude about the business climate in the US, as agreement on the nation's debt and budgetary issues remains elusive Jim McNerney, Boeing chairman Meanwhile, business groups are watching closely. After top US chief executives released their latest economic outlook, Jim McNerney, chairman of Boeing, said sales and capital expenditure expectations were improving but hiring remained slow. "The relatively smaller improvement in the outlook for hiring, however, may reflect ongoing uncertainty and a wait-and-see attitude about the business climate in the United States, as agreement on the nation's debt and budgetary issues remains elusive," Mr McNerney added. Mr Obama's efforts to reach out to Congress involved a key meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday that spanned a wide range of issues, including budget policy. The reviews from House Republicans about the meeting were mixed. "The only way we can solve our nation's spending-driven debt crisis is by working together, so I applaud the president for meeting with House Republicans today," said Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the House financial services committee. "And while I find myself agreeing with much of what the president says, I disagree with most of what the president does," he added.