House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has withdrawn from the closed-door budget deal talks, leaving the rift to be settled by President Obama and Speaker John Boehner. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Cantor remarked that "we've reached the point where the dynamic needs to change...It is up to the president to come in and talk to the speaker." The Journal writes, "Mr. Cantor's move marks a major turning point in the negotiations, which are trying to craft a major deficit-reduction initiative to clear the way for a needed increase in the federal debt limit before Aug. 2."  

The Hill reported earlier on Thursday that Republican lawmakers have been grumbling about the lack of transparency in the talks being led by Vice President Biden in an attempt to reach a deal by July 1. Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican of Tennessee gave a floor speech on Wednesday in which he complained, “I’m concerned that the type of deal that they may be trying to seek is not something that many of us in this body would even agree to if they reached it, meaning that it’s far more modest than I think most of us have been looking at.”

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Erik Hayden