Capitol Hill. Photo: Wiki Commons.

New York Times – With a possible default on government obligations days away, talks between the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate on Sunday failed to break an impasse over the spending level for a stopgap measure to reopen the government two weeks after much of it shut down.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, spoke cordially by telephone but remained deadlocked. The stumbling block is over spending levels, the length of a debt ceiling increase and how long a temporary spending measure should keep the government open until a longer-term budget deal can be reached.

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