Obama hosts high-stakes debt summit

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama awaited top Republican foes at the White House Sunday for high-stakes talks aimed at staving off a potentially catastrophic US debt default in early August.Obama returned from the presidential retreat of Camp David ahead of his 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) sit-down with attendees including House Speaker John Boehner and the combative Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell.Republicans are refusing to raise America's $14.29 trillion debt limit unless Obama first agrees to curb the ballooning budget deficit, in part by cutting costly government-funded programs to help the poor and the elderly.The president and Democrats say they are willing to make some cuts to the so-called entitlement programs but want the Republicans to meet them half way by allowing tax hikes for millionaires and billionaires to increase revenue.Before the crucial White House meeting, Boehner and McConnell warned they were abandoning efforts to reach a larger, comprehensive debt reduction deal because Obama and the Democrats insisted on raising taxes on the wealthy."Everything they told me and the speaker is that to get a big package would require big tax increases in the middle of an economic situation that?s extraordinarily difficult, with 9.2 percent unemployment. We think it's a terrible idea. It's a job-killer," McConnell told "Fox News Sunday."The Washington Post reported earlier that negotiators were now left with a less ambitious framework aimed at saving about $2.4 trillion over the next decade.But, hours before the talks, top Obama aides insisted the president would continue to seek an overarching debt reduction deal that saves some $4 trillion over the same period.Both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Obama's chief-of-staff William Daley clung to the notion a comprehensive deal could still be achieved but offered few clues to how the impasse might be broken."It's going to require both sides to compromise," Geithner told NBC's "Meet the Press," adding that Obama would aim for "the biggest deal

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