Inside the talks: Fiscal framework emerges  —  Listen to top Democrats and Republicans talk on camera, and it sounds like they could not be further apart on a year-end tax-and-spending deal - a down payment on a $4 trillion grand bargain.  —  But behind the scenes, top officials …

Republicans Balk at White House Plan to Avert Fiscal Crisis  —  WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner presented the House speaker, John A. Boehner, a detailed proposal on Thursday to avert the year-end fiscal crisis with $1.6 trillion in tax increases over 10 years …

Boehner Angered by Leak of Phone Call  —  Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Republican leaders are fuming after a late night phone call with President Barack Obama was leaked to the press, despite an agreement that it would not be, according to several GOP aides.

GOP Rejects Cliff Offer From Obama  —  President Barack Obama made an opening bid in budget talks with Republicans that calls for a $1.6 trillion tax increase, $50 billion in infrastructure spending in 2013 and new power to raise the federal debt limit, a provocative set of demands that Republicans …

The GOP's Medicare confusion  —  The austerity crisis talks have hit a peculiar impasse.  The problem isn't, as most analysts expected, taxes, where Republicans seem increasingly resigned to new revenue.  It's Medicare.  And the particular Medicare problem isn't that Democrats are refusing the GOP's proposed Medicare cuts.