Credit limit increase? $14.2 trillion and needing more

WASHINGTON (CNN) - House and Senate negotiators from both parties will meet again this Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden to come to a compromise to raise the federal borrowing limit in order to avoid the government defaulting on its loans.

Vice President Biden emerged from Tuesday's two hour meeting of the group optimistic.  "We had a really good discussion," he told reporters outside Blair House across the street from the White House.  "[W]e're making real progress" he said.  [E]verybody is being straight, cordial, all the facts are being laid on the table."

Democrats, including Finance Committee chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D) MT, seemed equally upbeat calling the talks "substantive."  But Republicans, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R) VA and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R) AZ, left the meeting without answering reporters questions.

Congress will have to vote on raising the nation's borrowing limit, or debt ceiling, above the now $14.2 trillion level sometime this summer.  Republicans have threatened to withhold their support for raising the debt limit without major spending cuts and budget reform.  But both parties seem wary of the politics involved in playing chicken with the nation's economic standing in the world, especially as the 2012 election approaches. (read more here)