President Barack Obama and the two top House Republican leaders held an unannounced meeting at the White House Sunday, trying to get debt talks back on track with just two weeks left before the threat of default. 
 
 Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor were both part of the discussions which come even as the House GOP has scheduled floor votes Tuesday on a newly revised debt ceiling bill that is remarkable for its total absence of compromise at this late date and represents a real shift to the right. 
 
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 Boehner’s office confirmed the meeting to POLITICO Monday but said that the goal was to keep lines of communication open, not to change the legislative plan for this week. 
 
 “As we said throughout the weekend, the lines of communications are being kept open,” said Kevin Smith. “But there is nothing to report in terms of an agreement or progress. We believe cut, cap and balance represents the best path forward, and we are looking forward to the House vote on it tomorrow.” 
 
 Obama clearly disagrees, and the administration said flatly Monday that the president would veto the House bill –regardless of the debt ceiling impact—if the measure should ever reach his desk 
 
 Final revisions made Friday submerge conservative demands to reduce all federal spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product — a target that threatened to split the GOP by requiring far deeper cuts than even the party’s April budget. But Republican congressional leaders still want a 10-year, $1.8 trillion cut from nondefense appropriations and have added a balanced-budget constitutional amendment that so restricts future tax legislation that even President Ronald Reagan might have opposed it in the 1980s. 
 
 Indeed, much of the deficit-reduction legislation signed by Reagan would not qualify under the new tea-party-driven standards. And even the famed Reagan-Tip O’Neill Social Security compromise — which raised payroll taxes — passed the House in 1983 well short of the 290 votes that would be required under the constitutional amendments being promoted by the GOP. 
 
 Dubbed Cut, Cap and Balance, the House bill allows for a $2.4 trillion increase in the Treasury’s borrowing authority but effectively uses the Aug. 2 deadline as a Republican anvil on which to hammer out cuts President Barack Obama would otherwise veto. 
 
 On the Sunday talk shows, proponents praised the initiative as a “common-sense” and “real deal” framework for final negotiations with the White House and Senate Democrats. 
 
 “At least we will have demonstrated we can pass legislation to deal with the debt ceiling and put the onus on the Senate to act,” Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.) told POLITICO. But in a blistering statement, Robert Greenstein, head of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the bill “stands out as one of the most ideologically extreme pieces of major budget legislation to come before Congress in years, if not decades.” 
 
 Statutory caps would drive spending down to 19.9 percent of gross domestic product by 2021 — a $1 trillion difference with Obama in that year alone. At the same time, Pentagon appropriations are assumed to grow even as Supplemental Security Income payments for the elderly and the disabled would be exposed to future sequesters to enforce the caps. ||||| Republican lawmakers moved ahead Monday on a doomed plan to amend the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced federal budget, one day after President Obama met with the top two House GOP leaders in hopes of reaching a debt-limit agreement that could win approval from the hostile House. 
 
 House Republicans insist that a constitutional mandate is the only way to impose discipline on Washington’s spending binges and spare the country future dangerous political showdowns like the one now speeding the country to the brink of its first-ever default. 
 
 Beyond requiring that the budget be balanced each year, the so-called “cut, cap and balance” measure under House consideration would require that the constitutional provision include annual spending caps and a supermajority to approve tax increases. 
 
 That plan faces almost certain defeat in the Senate, where many lawmakers moved ahead on Monday with a compromise proposal. 
 
 The current timeline, according to aides in both parties, would call for the Senate to unveil its bipartisan plan later this week and begin to consider it Saturday. With a week of parliamentary hurdles to clear, the Senate could pass its bill by July 29, leaving the House just four days to consider whether to approve the plan before Aug. 2, when the country would no longer be able to pay its bills. 
 
 Democrats are watching the action in the House warily. They hope that the cut, cap and balance measure will convince House Republicans that they need to sign on to the Senate compromise. 
 
 Obama issued a cautionary threat Monday to veto the measure should it pass Congress. The White House said the bill would set up an “unacceptable choice” between a disastrous failure to lift the nation’s borrowing limit or passing a balanced budget amendment that would require draconian spending cuts in Medicare, Social Security and other federal programs. 
 
 “This is a measure designed to . . . duck responsibility, dodge obligations and dismantle, eventually, if signed into law, our social safety net,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing. 
 
 Behind the public bluster were signs that quiet work continues on finding a compromise. 
 
 Obama met Sunday with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Republican Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) to discuss the way forward. While aides provided no details about the meeting, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in an interview Monday that he is “absolutely” confident a deal will be reached. 
 
 “Despite what you hear, and this is a complicated place, Washington, people are moving closer together,” he told CNBC. 
 
 In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) have been making quiet progress on a last-resort deal to allow the debt ceiling to be raised in return for about $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years. 
 
 A new idea also came from Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who released a 600-page plan that he says would achieve $9 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade through a combination of proposals long anathema to both parties, including far-reaching spending cuts, entitlement reform and increased tax revenue. 
 
 Coburn challenged those in his party not to see the elimination of special-interest tax breaks as a tax increase, while maintaining that he does not support any effort to increase rates. 
 
 “Tax expenditures are not tax cuts,” he said. “Tax expenditures are socialism and corporate welfare. Tax expenditures are increases on anyone who does not receive the benefit or can’t hire a lobbyist or special interest group to manipulate the code to their favor.” 
 
 The House bill is an updated version of the kind of balanced budget amendment Republicans have coveted for years. 
 
 A dramatic shrink in the size of government would come in two steps. First, Congress would impose an immediate legal cap on spending that matches the budget written by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which covers the next 10 years. 
 
 Next, the debt ceiling would rise only after Congress approves sending a constitutional amendment to the states for ratification. That would require two-thirds of both chambers of Congress voting for it — an outcome that no one believes will happen. 
 
 While the measure does not specify how strict the spending cap should be, past proposals have included caps at 18 percent of gross domestic product, down from the current 24 percent. 
 
 White House economic adviser Jason Furman told reporters on a conference call that if defense were exempted from cuts, that kind of cap would require slashing 12 percent from the rest of the federal budget, including Social Security and Medicare, resulting in a $2,000 reduction in benefits for the average Social Security recipient. 
 
 Not even House passage of the measure is assured — some Republicans plan to oppose any legislation to lift the debt ceiling. House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday predicted victory, but added that the leadership was “still working it.” 
 
 Leading conservative advocacy groups insist that Republicans must steer the measure through Congress before they would find a debt-ceiling increase acceptable. 
 
 The influential Club for Growth announced Monday that it supports the House measure — and that it would hold to account Republicans who support the Senate-brokered deal instead. 
 
 “A vote’s insufficient,” Tim Phillips, president of the tea party-affiliated Americans for Prosperity said recently. “It’s one thing to simply schedule a vote and say we gave you a vote. It’s another thing for it be elevated to a point where it’s part of the deal.” 
 
 More on PostPolitics.com 
 
 The Fix: Why Republicans don’t fear default 
 
 2Chambers: Nearly 30 percent of House skips votes as debt-limit deadline looms 
 
 Poll: Little confidence in leaders to deal with debt issue 
 
 Lori Montgomery, Felicia Sonmez and David Nakamura contributed to this report. ||||| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) delayed a vote on his plan to raise the debt ceiling late Saturday to give President Obama and GOP leaders more time to strike an agreement. 
 
 But the delay could imperil the chances of passing legislation to raise the debt limit by Aug. 2, a deadline set by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for avoiding a federal default. 
 
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 A senior Senate GOP aide estimated Friday that leaders would have to reach a deal by 1 a.m. Sunday morning in order to push it through the upper chamber and get it to the House by Tuesday.Leaders will have to rely on the goodwill of every member of the upper chamber to agree to unanimous consent to speed legislation through the Senate in time to make the deadline.The senior GOP aide said members of the Tea Party Caucus who have been resistant to raising the debt ceiling would not drag out the floor procedure to delay a deal sanctioned by Democratic and Republican leaders.A congressional source said Saturday night that Obama and GOP leaders had reached a tentative deal that would raise the debt limit by between $2.4 trillion and $2.8 trillion.It would include spending cuts of about $1 trillion and set up a select bicameral committee to recommend a second deficit-reduction package worth between $1.4 trillion and $1.8 trillion by Thanksgiving.If Congress fails to approve the committee’s recommendations, cuts to Defense and Medicare would go into effect automatically, giving both parties incentive to reach a later agreement.The Medicare reforms would not include cuts to beneficiaries. Instead, the tentative deal would trim payments to healthcare providers and insurance companies, according to an aide familiar with the talks.Senate Republicans would likely be given a vote on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution as part of the final deal.Reid said White House officials asked him to postpone a vote on legislation he crafted to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion and cut spending by an equal amount.Many details of the tentative bipartisan deal remain unresolved, according to Reid.“There are many elements to be finalized and there is still a distance to go before any arrangement can be completed,” Reid said.“I believe we should give everyone as much room as possible to do their work,” he said. “I spoke to the White House quite a few times this evening, and they’ve asked me to give everyone as much time as possible to reach an agreement, if one can be reached.”Reid postponed a vote to end a GOP filibuster of his plan until 1:00 pm Sunday. The Senate adjourned at 10:13 p.m. Saturday and will reconvene at noon Sunday.Senate Republicans had accused Reid of forcing a vote early Sunday morning in a deliberate attempt to run out the clock on bipartisan leadership negotiations. They saw it as a part of an effort to pressure moderate Republicans to go along with his own plan to raise the debt limit.“Democrats are running out the clock. They want to delay the hard work of negotiation until the Aug. 2 deadline they’ve been warning us about all summer,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).Reid took to the floor Saturday afternoon to announce that Obama was not close to reaching a deal with House GOP leaders.“The Speaker and the [Senate] Republican leader held a press conference to announce they’re in talks with the president and that a bargain to raise the debt limit is in the works and is close,” Reid said. “Members of the Senate, that is not true.”Reid reported that he had spent two hours with Obama and Vice President Biden and asserted that Republicans “still refuse to negotiate in good faith” because they refuse to allow potential tax increases.McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered a bullish assessment earlier in the day, surprising some senior Democrats who did not realize there was any substantial progress.Democrats took to the Senate floor Saturday night to urge Obama to use unilateral executive authority to increase the debt limit.As the deadline approaches, they have become increasingly anxious over the partisan deadlock on an agreement.“If we fail this, I hope the president will invoke the 14th Amendment and everyone should read it. It says the debt of the United States shall not be questioned. And if we can’t get together, the president will have to take that responsibility,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said.But McConnell seemed confident Saturday that he and Boehner would be able to reach agreement with Obama.“Our country is not going to default for the first time in our history — that is not going to happen — we now have a level of seriousness and the right people at the table that we needed and thought we had, as the Speaker indicated last week,” McConnell said at a Saturday press conference.McConnell’s announcement sparked alarm among some rank-and-file Democrats who were surprised by media reports nine days ago that Obama and Boehner were close to a deal that would have cut entitlements.White House budget director Jack Lew insisted to Democrats at a private meeting on July 21 that there was no deal, but the next day senior administration officials told reporters that they were in fact very close to hatching an agreement.One liberal Democratic senator said he hoped that House Democrats would act as a backstop and derail an agreement which would cut Medicare substantially without offering the possibility of raising taxes.If Obama and GOP leaders cannot finalize an agreement, Reid will move ahead with his own plan, which would not touch entitlement programs. He has reached out to moderate Republicans in hope of persuading at least seven of them to support his plan.So far, Sen. Scott Brown (R), who is facing reelection next year in Massachusetts, has signaled he would vote for Reid’s proposal.Forty-three Senate Republicans signed a letter to Reid on Saturday declaring their opposition to his debt-ceiling legislation. That opposition left Democrats short of the 60 votes needed to end a filibuster, virtually assuring the defeat of Reid’s plan when it came up for a scheduled vote.Earlier Saturday, House Republicans resoundingly rejected a version of Reid’s debt plan in a 173-246 vote. Every Republican in the chamber voted against it, while all but 11 Democrats voted in favor.However, Reid says there are more GOP lawmakers in play in the Senate than indicated by McConnell’s letter.“One of the people who signed that letter has met with one of my Democratic senators,” Reid said. “A number of them have already agreed to work with us.” 
 
 Last Updated at 12:16 a.m.
– So much for the weekend plans of the United States Senate: The Chicago Tribune notes that Harry Reid said today he'll hold session every single day "from now until Congress passes legislation that prevents the United States from defaulting on our obligations." While little progress was made last week, President Obama met with John Boehner and Eric Cantor in secret yesterday in an effort to get deficit talks back on track before the Aug. 2 deadline, adds Politico. “We're making progress,” he said today. Republicans are expected to vote tomorrow on a measure requiring congressional approval of a budget amendment to the Constitution before the debt ceiling is raised—a measure Obama bluntly says he would veto, reports the Washington Post. But some 40 House GOPers say they won't touch the debt ceiling without such a "cut, cap, and balance” measure. “There will be a fringe that believes that playing with Armageddon is a good idea, but I don’t think that’s where the majority will be,” says Obama's budget director.