雅思阅读材料：debt of America_雅思英语阅读

雅思阅读材料：debt of America

　　In a speech in May Mr Boehner explained that he would want dramatic reductions in government spending in exchange for an increase. We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions. They should be actual cuts and programme reforms, not broad deficit or debt targets that punt the tough questions to the future. As recently as last week he was discussing just such a deal with Barack Obama, who despite having presented a spendthrift budget earlier in the year had professed a willingness to trim future deficits by as much as $4 trillion. On July 22nd, however, Mr Boehner withdrew from the negotiations, saying that Mr Obama was too eager to raise taxessomething that almost all Republicans in the House had sworn not to do.

　　Even as Messrs Boehner and Obama were falling out, the Senate rejected a bill passed by the House that would have slashed spending next year, capped it in future and prevented the debt ceiling from being lifted until Congress approved an amendment to the constitution that barred the federal government from running deficits even as it made it harder to raise taxes. That, the Democrats complained, was far too draconian. The harried Mr Boehner responded on July 25th with a lesser measure that he said would cut spending by $915 billion, and raise the debt ceiling by a little lessonly enough to keep the government going for about six months. The bill would also set up a panel of 12 congressmen to recommend another $1.8 trillion of cuts, which if enacted would prompt another $1.6 trillion rise in the debt ceiling. Tax rises would be ruled out from the start.