"Job-destroying tax hikes on small businesses and American families are not the answer to out-of-control Washington spending," he said on the Senate floor. McConnell said yesterday he was prepared to force furloughs of government employees in order to reduce the deficit.

Federal Workers

"The only entity in America that's not sacrificing during this economic downturn is federal government workers," McConnell told reporters yesterday. "We have largely insulated the federal government from this recession. And I don't think that's a good argument for not trying to get -- to begin to get our fiscal house in order."

Democrats are considering a "Wall Street tax" -- an assessment of about one-tenth of 1 percent per stock transaction, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio said yesterday.

"There is a growing understanding that revenue has got to be part of the discussion," said Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

Lawmakers are "still a ways from getting a long-term" agreement for the rest of the government's fiscal year, McCarthy said yesterday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He said any new stopgap measure would make additional cuts on top of the $4 billion in the temporary funding bill signed into law last week.

Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, accused Obama of failing to lead in the budget debate.

"When it comes to an issue of significant national importance, the president must lead -- not the majority leader or the speaker, but the president," he said on the Senate floor yesterday.

"He must sit down with leaders of both parties and help hammer out a real bipartisan compromise," Manchin said, and so far "the most powerful person in these negotiations -- our president -- has failed to lead."

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