The White house has called the Republican proposal a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party conservatives. With time running out toward a Thursday deadline to avert a historic US debt default, House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, proposed an alternative to a Senate plan that would affect US President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.
White House spokesperson Amy Brundage said Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have been working in a good-faith effort to end the fiscal stalemate. The spokesperson also said Obama will later meet with the House's Democratic Leadership.