Boehner to GOP: Unify behind my $1.2 trillion plan

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is appealing to fellow Republicans to unify behind a two-stage, $1.2 trillion, debt-limit plan he promises to spell out Monday.

"The path forward, I believe, is that we pull together as a team behind a new measure that has a shot at getting to the president's desk," a knowledgeable source told The Wall Street Journal Boehner said in a conference call with House Republicans.

"It's going to require some of you to make some sacrifices," the source said the Ohio Republican said of his package.

Boehner aides have said there would be up to $1.2 trillion in cuts to government agencies, including the Pentagon.

But Boehner's plan faces stiff Democratic opposition because it would give the Treasury only about $900 billion to $1 trillion in additional borrowing authority, the Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported.

This would force another battle over the debt ceiling early next year when the parties are in the heat of the 2012 presidential campaign.

President Barack Obama and other Democrats insist a budget deal must raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling $2.4 trillion now to carry the government through the end of 2012, officials said.

A five- to six-month increase would leave the financial markets with too much uncertainty, they said.

"The president believes ... to help the American economy and help the American people, we must get this uncertainty out of the system," White House Chief of Staff William Daley told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"You see how hard this is right now. Can you imagine going through this again in six months?" an administration official told the Times Sunday night.

Boehner told "Fox News Sunday" he knew Obama was "worried about his next election," and said he would prefer a bipartisan resolution.

But if that doesn't happen, "I and my Republican colleagues in the House are prepared to move on our own" without Democratic support, he told the network.

The House plans to file Boehner's debt-ceiling legislation Monday night and vote on it Wednesday, officials said.

The Treasury Department's deadline for getting the debt ceiling raised is Aug. 2, six days later.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., meanwhile, said Sunday night he was pressing ahead with a competing plan for $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, along with a big-enough debt-limit increase to carry the government through the end of 2012 -- and no tax increases.

The cut details were not finalized, he said, but they would not touch so-called entitlement programs like Medicare, a Democratic aide told the Journal.

Some savings would likely come from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials told the Post and Journal.

But counting money not spent on a war the nation is already planning to end is widely viewed as a budget gimmick House GOP leaders do not like, the Post said.

Senate leaders intend to push Reid's proposal toward passage Friday, officials said.

At the same time, aides to Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., worked to adjust Boehner's plan in the hope of making it acceptable to Obama and other Democrats, the Post said.