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<div id="article"><div class="entry-content"><div class="w480"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/07/12/us/politics/caucus-mcconnell-debt/caucus-mcconnell-debt-blog480.jpg" id="100000000942252" alt="Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, left, and Jon Kyl, the Republican whip, unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would allow an increase in the debt ceiling."/><span class="credit">Susan Walsh/Associated Press</span><span class="caption">Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, left, and Jon Kyl, the Republican whip, unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would allow an increase in the debt ceiling.</span></div><p>The Senate Republican leader, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/mitch_mcconnell/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Mitch McConnell.">Mitch McConnell</a> of Kentucky, said Tuesday that a bipartisan budget deal with <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Barack Obama.">President Obama</a> was probably out of reach, and he proposed a plan under which the president could increase the federal <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/national_debt_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" class="tickerized" title="More articles about the national debt.">debt limit</a> without prior Congressional approval for offsetting spending cuts.</p><p>Mr. McConnell’s proposal reflected a growing sense of pessimism on Capitol Hill about the prospects that Mr. Obama and Congressional leaders could come to terms on a budget deal before the government’s borrowing authority hit its limit on Aug. 2. The negotiators sat down for another round of talks at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.</p><p>In an <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20078789-503544.html">interview with CBS News</a>, Mr. Obama said he “cannot guarantee” that the government can pay benefits next month to <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Social Security.">Social Security</a> recipients, veterans and the disabled if Congress does not increase the federal debt limit, raising the political stakes even as Republicans hardened their opposition to him.</p><p>Mr. McConnell’s proposal would give Mr. Obama sweeping power to increase the government’s borrowing authority, in increments, by up to $2.4 trillion — enough, it is estimated, to cover federal obligations through next year — only if Mr. Obama specifies spending cuts of equal amounts. But Congress would not have to approve the spending cuts prior to the debt-limit increase.</p><p>It is not clear whether House Republicans would sign on to such a measure, given their drive to extract deep spending cuts in return for any debt-limit increase. <span id="more-157931"/></p><p>Mr. McConnell, who after the midterm elections last November said Republicans’ goal would be to make Mr. Obama a one-term president, said in his Senate speech, “After years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is probably unattainable.”</p><p>At the White House, press secretary <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/jay_carney/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Jay Carney.">Jay Carney</a> responded, “This president’s going to be in office for at least another 18 months, and I think the American people expect Congress to work with him.”</p><p>With the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit just three weeks away, Tuesday seemed to mark a new low in the summer’s maneuvering between the White House and Congressional Republicans to agree to a debt-reduction packag
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