WASHINGTON DC, United States — President Barack Obama met the top Republican in Congress at the White House yesterday as both American political parties continue their brinksmanship over how much the government will be allowed to spend for the next six months. Failure to negotiate a deal would lead to a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday.

In the stormy conflict over government spending and the spiraling US debt, Republicans opened a second front yesterday by introducing a spending plan for next year that they say would slash the nation’s deficit by US$5 trillion in the coming 10 years.

The Republican plan brought forth by House Budget Committee Rep Paul Ryan far exceeds the US$1 trillion-plus in cuts outlined in Obama’s February budget in line with recommendations from Obama’s own bipartisan deficit commission in December. The Ryan plan blends unprecedented spending cuts with a fundamental restructuring of taxpayer-financed health care for the elderly and the poor.

Under the arcane congressional budget process, the Republican plan is not actual legislation but provides a nonbinding, theoretical framework for future action in Congress. With Democrats controlling the Senate, the Republican outline serves more to frame the debate heading into next year’s election than represent a program with a chance of passing Congress and becoming law.

Despite cuts already deemed draconian by Democrats, Ryan’s plan cannot claim a balanced budget by the end of the decade. Instead it lowers the deficit to the US$400 billion range after six years because of promises to not increase taxes or change federal retirement benefits for people 55 and over.

The White House sit-down between Obama and the leader of the House, Speaker John Boehner, took place against a backdrop of Democratic accusations that Republicans are insisting on harmful spending cuts and attaching their own social policy agenda to the must-pass spending bill. Republicans counter that the White House is pressing budget gimmicks at a time that big cuts are needed to avoid dire financial consequences.

The negotiations were joined by Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

It remains unclear which side would absorb public blame and anger if there is no deal and government is force into a partial shutdown, but there was likely to be political damage and mainstream members of both parties say they want to avoid a shutdown.