WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers might opt to postpone tough tax decisions until next year as they struggle to forge a deficit-reduction deal over the coming week, congressional aides said on Monday.

With time running short, the “super committee” of six Democrats and six Republicans could agree to some spending cuts and instruct their fellow lawmakers to raise more tax revenue by retooling the byzantine tax code next year, aides said.

That could allow the panel to reach a deal by its Nov. 23 deadline and temporarily resolve a budget battle that has dominated Washington for most of this year. But it would push the tax question well into the 2012 election season, when partisan tensions will be running even higher than usual.

The idea has been talked about for months as a possibility and is being looked at more closely as little progress is evident as the deadline approaches.

Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling on Sunday talked about a possible “two-step approach” on a Sunday talk show.

A senior Democratic aide said on Monday: “It is being discussed. That is clear.”

Another option under discussion is a deal that would lead to more tax revenue now, the aide said.

WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers aim to present a dramatic show of support this week for a congressional “super committee” racing against the clock to agree on a deficit-cutting plan.

The lawmakers, worried about the political and economic consequences of failure, are crossing party lines and eschewing the trench warfare that has marred debate over how to cut America’s deficit, now topping more than $1 trillion a year.

In a symbolic show of unity that is rare in the polarized world of modern Washington politics, as many as 150 members of Congress are expected to stand together on the Capitol steps on Tuesday to demonstrate solidarity with the committee.

“There’s been plenty of speculation that the super committee will fail. We’ll show we want them to succeed,” a senior Republican aide told Reuters.

The nearly 150 lawmakers represent about half the Democratic-controlled 100-member Senate and roughly a quarter of the 435-member Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

The unusual event on the Capitol steps is likely to attract widespread media attention. But it is unclear what impact it will have on the committee members who are struggling behind closed doors to overcome deep ideological differences over taxes hikes and cuts to government-run healthcare and retirement programs.

The super committee faces a Nov. 23 deadline, now just nine days away, to reach a deal to cut U.S. deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – Deep beneath the U.S. Capitol is a red-carpeted room that recently reverberated to the sound of Democrats and Republicans singing together, and then to their angry exchanges over how to fix the U.S. budget.

Welcome to Congress’s “super committee” room.

This is where a dozen lawmakers lock themselves away to try to strike a deal that, if reached, could prove a turning point in one of the United States’ biggest challenges: shrinking its huge budget deficits and containing its soaring debt burden.

On a dozen occasions so far since early September, the committee’s six senators and six members of the House of Representatives pulled up a dozen yellow chairs to four wooden tables pushed into a square and commenced haggling over spending and taxes.

There is no assigned seating in the bare 30-by-30 foot (9-by-9 metres) Room 200 in the Capitol’s visitors’ center, two floors underground.

Instead the six Republicans and six Democrats routinely change places as they try new ways to find a deal by Nov. 23 to cut the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

The swings between comity and acrimony do not yet signal whether a deal can be done by the deadline.

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (Reuters) – The congressional “super committee” charged with slashing the U.S. deficit have heard from legions of lobbyists and lawmakers bent on influencing the outcome. Now members are getting an earful from Republican and Democratic leaders who want them to reach a deal and help restore voters’ faith in Congress before the 2012 elections.

The panel’s six Republicans and six Democrats are under pressure to avoid a deadlock that could further anger voters fed up with the partisan gridlock that has plagued major legislation since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, according to aides, analysts, lawmakers and lobbyists.

House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell want a deal, figuring it would be smart politically as well as vital to the country’s fiscal well-being, aides said.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi make the same point.

“Knowing how important this agreement is, the message that it will send to the world, to the markets, to the American people (and) the confidence it will be build — it will be a missed opportunity if we do not do this,” Pelosi told reporters. “It behooves all of us to be open as possible.”

The committee faces a Nov. 23 deadline to come up with a package to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. A deadlock would trigger automatic cuts spread evenly between defense and domestic programs.

Recent opinion polls show public approval of Congress as low as 9 percent, with data suggesting that Republicans and Democrats are equally disillusioned with the inability of lawmakers to work together.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Republicans and Democrats rejected each other’s economic stimulus bills on Thursday, underscoring their inability to craft a bipartisan solution on job creation before next year’s elections.

All 47 Senate Republicans, joined by two of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats and one independent, stopped a key piece of Obama’s $447 billion economic stimulus plan.

The $35 billion proposal would raise taxes on millionaires to create or protect 400,000 jobs for teachers, firefighters, police officers and other first responders. In a 50-50 vote, its backers fell short of the needed 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to clear a Republican-led procedural roadblock.

“For the second time in two weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a bill that would create jobs and get our economy going again. That’s unacceptable,” Obama said in a statement vowing to continue pushing for passage of the plan “piece by piece.”

Democrats fired back by blocking a Republican bid to repeal a 3 percent withholding tax on business set to take effect on January 1, 2013. The 57-43 vote was also short of the needed 60 to stop a procedural roadblock by Democrats. Ten Democrats crossed party lines to vote in favor of the measure.

Democrats control the Senate, 53-47.

Both sides accused the other of jockeying for position in advance of the 2012 presidential elections that seems certain to feature the economy as the top issue.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration and the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to unveil new steps to help distressed homeowners in the next week or two, a senior congressional aide said on Thursday.

The aide commented on the plan after Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the Federal Reserve planned to send Congress “legislative recommendations” on housing.

The aide said Feinstein “misspoke for a second” and meant the administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

After Senate Democrats met with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Feinstein told reporters the central bank chief had stressed that more needed to be done to help the housing sector.

“They are going to submit a list of recommendations next week,” Feinstein told reporters. She said the pending proposals are “legislative recommendations we can look at.”

Senator Mark Warner, who also attended the meeting, said Bernanke spoke about what can be done to get mortgage refinance moved “down the field.”

“There might be some ideas we are going to have shortly on that,” he told reporters after the meeting.

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (Reuters) – The Obama administration and the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to unveil new steps to help distressed homeowners in the next week or two, a senior congressional aide said on Thursday.

The aide commented on the plan after Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said the Federal Reserve planned to send Congress “legislative recommendations” on housing.

The aide said Feinstein “misspoke for a second” and meant the administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

After Senate Democrats met with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Feinstein told reporters the central bank chief had stressed that more needed to be done to help the housing sector.

“They are going to submit a list of recommendations next week,” Feinstein told reporters. She said the pending proposals are “legislative recommendations we can look at.”

Senator Mark Warner, who also attended the meeting, said Bernanke spoke about what can be done to get mortgage refinance moved “down the field.”

“There might be some ideas we are going to have shortly on that,” he told reporters after the meeting.

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats in the Senate proposed a bill on Monday to enact into law a portion of his popular $447 billion jobs program that Republicans blocked last week.

The Democrats’ bill would create or save, at a cost of $35 billion, 300,000 education jobs and another 100,000 jobs for firefighters, police officers and other first-responders, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat.

Reid said he wants to get a Senate vote on the bill as early as this week to underscore the battle over the weak U.S. economy that features a stubbornly high 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

But aides said Republicans, who accuse Obama of political gimmicks, may prevent a vote until at least the first week in November when the Senate is set to return from an upcoming seven-day recess.

Reid threatened to delay the Senate recess if he senses that Republicans are dragging their feet.

“I am happy to keep the Senate in session as long as needed to make sure we get a vote on this jobs bill,” Reid said in a conference call with reporters.

Regardless when it is held, Democrats are expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed in the 100-member chamber to clear a procedural hurdle. Democrats control the chamber 53-47.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Republicans, having rejected President Barack Obama’s jobs bill, offered a sweeping and largely repackaged plan of their own on Thursday.

Their “Jobs Through Growth Act” features a fresh call for tax reform and cuts as well as a number of components previously proposed, but stalled in the Democratic-led Senate.

They include steps to: require a balanced budget; repeal Obama’s overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system; lift prohibitions on offshore energy exploration and promote U.S. trade.

“This is a pro-growth proposal to create the environment for jobs that stands in contrast to the short-term sweetener approach of the Obama administration, an approach that simply hasn’t worked,” Senator Rob Portman, a chief sponsor of the measure, told a news conference.

Republicans unveiled their measure after complaints by Obama that they haven’t offered a jobs-creation plan.

“We just thought it was time to put this all into a package,” said Senator John McCain, another sponsor. “Part of it is in response to the president saying we don’t have a proposal.”

McCain said all but a few of the Senate’s 47 Republicans had embraced the measure, whose third and final chief sponsor is Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite.