Obama, Congress Still Seek 'Grand Bargain'

That big debt ceiling deal just won't die: Lawmakers are still working on an ambitious "grand bargain" that would hack as much as $5 trillion from the national debt over the next decade, reports the Washington Post. President Obama, House speaker John Boehner, and other congressional leaders have all voiced support for a large debt-cutting proposal, and even House majority leader Eric Cantor has shown signs of some flexibility on raising taxes in exchange for drastically reducing the debt.

To help build bipartisan support for a big deal, Congress is creating a powerful new committee, with six members from each party, to create a debt-reduction report by the end of the year. But Republican leaders still face an ornery flock of freshmen and conservative deficit-hawks who have little interest in any sorts of compromise. “I didn’t get elected to punt this problem down the road another six months,” said Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. "Guys like me are not coming along. We’re not going along just to get along.” (More federal debt stories.)