With New Budget Deadlines, Top Hill Lawmakers Appear as Far Apart as Ever

Photo Credit: Fox NewsTop Washington lawmakers appeared no closer Sunday to reaching deals on upcoming budget negotiations than they were on the recent ones — disagreeing over an entire range of issues including taxes, spending and ObamaCare.

Among the key issues is whether negotiators for the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate can agree on an alternative to the indiscriminate cuts know as sequester, a result of the 2011 Budget Control Act.

Such a deal seemed unlikely considering Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt told “Fox News Sunday” the act was “better than anything we’ve had before to control spending.”

And Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said later on the show that Democrats “won’t trade” reducing cuts on defense spending for deep cuts to entitlement, as Republicans have proposed.

Democrats want to increase spending levels next year above the sequester caps and replace them with more long-term budget savings through spending cuts and tax increases, which Republicans have rejected.

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