Democrats gave Republicans a "menu of options" for phasing out tax expenditures benefiting corporations as part of a series of debt-reduction negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden, said Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic member of the bipartisan negotiating group.

During today's meeting, talks centered on how to control the debt long-term through caps on the budget deficit that could include automatic spending cuts and higher taxes to control its rate of growth, which Democrats favor, Van Hollen said. Republicans favor dollar-specific spending caps.

Lawmakers and White House officials met for the tenth time today with a goal of wrapping up discussions by early next month to slash the federal debt and deficit by trillions of dollars, a condition Republicans have set for increasing the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling in the coming weeks.