Bipartisan Hill Aides Begin Search For Common Ground On Deficit

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joseph Biden`s Thursday morning budget meeting with top lawmakers was little more than a risk for attendees to have introductory remarks and lay out general positions on financial matters. But the actual work began at 3 p.m. when a bipartisan group of staffers huddled to get the hunt for areas of understanding on deficit reduction.

White House aides attended the staff meeting, as did aides to apiece of the six lawmakers who attended Biden`s meeting: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House Budget ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

A senior Democratic aide suggested the staff-level meeting would be where real negotiations begin taking place. There was "no real news" out of Biden's hour-and-a-half meeting, said the aide, but it was crucial to get all the parties in one room. "You've got to go somewhere."

Another Democratic aide said involved lawmakers take "a general agreement" that they want to determine areas of agreement. "The former things are bright lines," said this aide. "We may not get those resolved for a long time, whether it is revenue or their project on Medicare."

The vice president open the encounter at Blair House, the guesthouse across the street from the White House often a locale for high-profile meetings, by citing "two looming concerns" that everyone present agrees must be addressed: the debt limit and "the often larger looming issue of the long-term debt," according to pool reports. The role of Thursday`s meeting, he said, was to "make certain each of us understands where the other guy is forthcoming from."

President Barack Obama announced in April that he was tapping Biden to leave the deficit talks during a major speech on fiscal policy. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Office of Management and Budget director Jacob Lew, and National Economic Council director Gene Sperling are also taking office in discussions.

Biden had little to say after his meeting, the beginning of several to be held at Blair House. "On behalf of all of us, let me say we had a good, productive first meeting today," he said in a statement. "We contrive to play again on Tuesday and looking ahead to further discussions on these important challenges."

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