http://news.yahoo.com/snapshot-expect-sunday-u-debt-crisis-045619208.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here is what is happening on Sunday as lawmakers and the White House race to broker a deal to raise the country's $14.3 trillion borrowing cap by Tuesday's deadline and avoid defaulting on obligations.
* Democratic and Republican congressional leaders say they are close to a deal to raise the debt limit enough to last through the 2012 presidential and congressional election year.
That is so the President has some chance for re-election.
* Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on CNN's State of the Union said lawmakers were looking at $3 trillion in spending cuts. "We're very close," McConnell said. But they will not go into effect for years, if ever.
* The deal being closed in on would include up front spending cuts of about $1 trillion and create a special congressional panel to recommend further savings that would include defense spending and Medicare, the healthcare program for the elderly, congressional aides said. They will end the war in the Middle East and save a trillion dollars.
* The deal would also include an enforcement mechanism to ensure that additional savings developed by the special committee get enacted into law. Across-the-board cuts would be triggered if Congress fails to act on the recommendations. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer told CNN's "State of the Union" program that the enforcement mechanism was still under discussion. And would be left out in last minute trading.
* Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid delayed a procedural vote on the Democrats' debt limit proposal until 1 p.m. EDT on Sunday to give top Democrats, Republicans and the White House more time to work out a bipartisan plan. A plan to get the Republicans to move more to the liberal side.
* White House adviser David Plouffe tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that Sunday is a "critical day" to get a deal in place. "We have to give confidence that there is a pathway" to raise the debt ceiling and reduce the deficit, he says. But raising the debt ceiling is the important part.
* If a deal between congressional leaders and the White House is reached, the Democratic-led Senate and Republican-led House of Representatives would gear up for passage by briefing their rank-and-file members, lobbying for their support and putting the agreement into legislative language that potentially could be enacted by Tuesday.
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