WASHINGTON DC, United States — THE political and financial crisis gripping the US appeared yesterday to have deepened after President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner accused one another in nationally televised speeches of failing to negotiate in good faith to avert an unprecedented and catastrophic American default early next week.

Positions seemed only to harden after Obama and Boehner engaged in an extraordinary joust over fiscal issues that have consumed Washington since a large block of first-term members of the US House of Representatives, elected last year under the mantle of the small-government, low-tax tea party, returned the lower chamber to Republican control.

With stalemate in the air, Boehner pushed ahead with his two-step plan, a short-term bill to cut spending about US$1.2 trillion and extend the debt ceiling for about six months that could come to a vote today. House Republican leaders scheduled a second vote Thursday on a balanced-budget constitutional amendment long favoured by rank-and-file conservatives.

Amid uncertainty in the House about the spending bill’s prospects, Boehner told reporters, “This was negotiated in a bipartisan manner between both Houses of the Congress. I do think that we are going to have some work to do to get it passed but I think we can do it.”

Conservative Republicans in the House cast doubt about whether there is sufficient backing for the speaker’s plan.

“We think there are real problems with this plan,” said Rep Jim Jordan, who heads the Republican Study Group. He argued that the spending cuts are insufficient and expressed opposition to likely tax increases.

“If I had to vote right now, my vote would be no,” Republican Rep Steve Southerland said.

And White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Boehner proposal would not pass muster in the Senate.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid challenged Republicans to back his competing legislation, arguing that the no-taxes, government-cuts proposal was just what they wanted.

“In short, it’s everything the Republicans have demanded wrapped up in a bow and delivered to their door,” Reid said at the start of the Senate session.

In his Monday night speech, Obama said the long and caustic fight was a “partisan three-ring circus”. Boehner, borrowing the president’s very words, said Obama “would not take yes for an answer”.

Obama spoke from the East Room of the White House. Boehner issued his rebuttal moments later from his ceremonial speaker’s chamber in the Capitol. Their words swept through the national television audience just hours after Boehner and Reid offered competing legislation to break the deadlock over raising the Treasury’s ability to continue borrowing money to pay its bills after the current US$14.3-trillion limit expires next Tuesday.

Many have predicted dire consequences for the American and global economies should the United States default.

Obama warned of a “reckless and irresponsible” outcome without a compromise by August 2. He urged Americans to make their voices heard and let their representatives know they support “a balanced approach to reducing the deficit”.

Boehner responded that Obama wanted “a blank cheque today” and declared “this is just not going to happen”.

Obama and the Democrats see it differently, accusing tea party Republicans of putting ideological purity ahead of reality and what’s best for the country.

“The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach — an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all,” Obama said.

The president and his Democratic allies have sought a plan that would cut the spiralling US deficit and debt through a package of deep cuts in government spending while increasing tax revenues through revocation of loopholes and the rate cuts for wealthy Americans instituted under former President George W Bush.

Republicans, under the sway of their tea party wing, refuse to even consider higher taxes.

The latest measure Boehner and the Republican leadership have presented in the House, in addition to spending cuts and an increase in the debt limit to tide the Treasury over until sometime next year, called for a second increase in borrowing authority sometime next year that would hinge on approval of additional spending cuts sometime during the election year.

Obama said he opposed such a two-stage move because it was not likely to prevent a downgrading of America’s triple-A credit standing as threatened by big credit rating organisations. He wants the borrowing ceiling raised by at least US$2.4 trillion in one vote.

Obama’s White House on Monday backed the new Senate Democratic plan even though it omitted Obama’s requirement of increased tax revenues. It would raise the debt limit by the US$2.4-trillion figure the White House wants and carry the country into 2013, beyond the next election. It calls for US$2.7 trillion in federal spending cuts, but assumes US$1 trillion of that would derive from the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Echoing the disgust he voiced on Friday when Boehner walked away from talks with Obama, the president said: “The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government.”

Boehner countered: “The president has often said we need a ‘balanced’ approach, which in Washington means we spend more, you pay more.” He then challenged Obama assertion on the status of talks, saying there “is no stalemate in Congress”.

He said the Republicans’ latest plan would clear the House, could pass the Senate and then would be sent to Obama for his signature.

Obama has said he would not sign a short-term extension of the debt ceiling, but on Monday he stopped short of issuing a veto threat.

In his speech, Obama pleaded for compromise and urged Americans to contact their lawmakers.

“We can’t allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare,” Obama told the nation.

Congressional officials said the House switchboard was near capacity with a high volume of calls and suggested using backup numbers. Websites also experienced heavy traffic and lawmakers were sending out appeals for patience.

Unclear was whether the callers echoed Obama’s argument or backed Boehner’s call for his approach.