–House Speaker Says He’s ‘In Conversations’ With White House On Budget
–Rep. Boehner: Final Budget Deal Isn’t ‘Going To Be Easy’
–Calls On Admin To Submit Three Bilateral Trade Deals

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – House Speaker John Boehner Wednesday said he is
in negotiations with the White House and the Senate on a final fiscal
year 2011 budget accord, but added a final agreement will not be easy to
achieve.

“We would like to come to an agreement as soon as possible,”
Boehner said.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he added.

Boehner played down the number of Republican defections Tuesday
when the House passed a stop-gap spending bill that funds the government
until April 8.

“I’m pleased we were able to pass the three week CR,” he said,
referring to the stop-gap bill.

The stop-gap bill, largely drafted by House Republicans, includes
$6 billion in spending cuts. These cuts are acceptable to congressional
Democrats and the White House.

The House passed the bill Tuesday on a 271 to 158 vote. In the
vote, 104 Democrats and 54 Republicans opposed the short-term spending
bill for opposite reasons. House Democrats said the bill cuts spending
too much while House Republicans say it does not cut spending enough.

The 2011 fiscal year began on Oct. 1 and the government has run on
five short-term funding bills. The new stop-gap would be the sixth
short-term spending measure.

The current stop-gap spending bill funding the government expires
Friday.

The Senate is expected to take up the short-term FY’11 spending
bill in the next few days. Once that is approved, Congress’s focus will
shift to negotiating a final FY’11 budget agreement with the White
House.

Boehner spoke on budget issues at the end of an hour-long forum on
jobs in which House Republican leaders listened to a group of selected
business leaders urge them to reduce taxes, ease government regulations
and create a more stable environment for business.

Safra Catz, president of Oracle, urged GOP leaders to cut corporate
taxes, saying the U.S. corporate tax rate is much higher than is the
rate of America’s competitors.

“It’s a huge deal,” Catz said when asked to assess the impact of
America’s corporate tax rate.

She appeared to be making a pitch for repatriation legislation when
she said that there would be “a lot less cash sitting overseas” if the
U.S. sharply reduced its corporate tax rate. She did not explicitly call
for a one year tax holiday, but many large American corporations are
pushing repatriation legislation.

Boehner said the Republican agenda for creating jobs is to cut
“Washington spending,” eliminate unnecessary regulation and secure
passage of three bilateral trade agreements.

Boehner called on the Obama administration to formally submit the
bilateral trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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