An interesting peek inside the debt negotiations….
Maybe Cantor should have stormed out instead

And here how a GOP aide describes it to me:

Over the last several days the White House has been walking back the savings on the Biden number. Thursday it was $2 trillion, Monday it was $1.7-1.8 trillion, Tuesday it was $1.6-1.7-1.8 trillion. This morning our staff met with White House folks and the wrap up from that meeting said that the WH is now at $1.5 trillion.

Given those figures, [Cantor] pointed out that wherever we are- it’s a long way from the $2.4 trillion needed to meet House GOP goals of dollar for dollar so he suggested a possible short-term goal in order to avoid default. He then said to the President that since we can only reach so much in savings and you (President) keep moving the goalposts, I will move off my position of only doing one vote in order to avoid default.

And that’s when Obama started to “lecture” the House Republican majority leader. But either way, it sounds to me like a final deal might be $1.5 trillion in cuts for a debt ceiling extension through the election. In exchange for no tax hikes, Republicans give on their “dollar for dollar” demand.

So it seems Obama is offering them smaller spending cuts as the Republicans continue to stall. The longer they wait, the smaller the cuts. Of course the 4 trillion dollar “Big Deal” cuts are still on the table but if Republicans insist on tax breaks for the rich it may be the only thing they get out of the deal.