Pressure Grows for Debt Deal

Hope nobody started to celebrate the debt deal yet. The White House and congressional Republicans played down rumors Thursday that there had been a pact reached on the budget, as the August 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling approaches. The rumors followed feverish negotiations between the two camps, with Democratic sources saying a potential agreement had been reached that would call for $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years and a tax code rewrite by the end of 2012. “There is no progress to report,” said White House communications director Jay Carney. But House Speaker John Boehner was more blunt: “There is no deal. No deal publicly. No deal privately. There is absolutely no deal.” However rumors of a deal helped boost the stock market, with the Dow ending up 1.2 percent.