The political and financial crisis gripping the US appeared to have only deepened after President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner attacked each other over the failure to avert a catastrophic financial default next week.

Positions seemed to harden after they engaged in an extraordinary joust over fiscal issues that have consumed Washington since a large block of first-term members of the US House of Representatives, elected last year under the mantle of the small-government, low-tax tea party, returned the lower chamber to Republican control.

Mr Obama said the long and caustic fight was a "partisan three-ring circus." Mr Boehner, borrowing the president's very words, said Mr Obama "would not take yes for an answer,"

Their words swept through the national television audience just hours after Mr Boehner and Harry Reid, leader of the Democratic-controlled Senate, offered competing deals to break the deadlock over raising the Treasury's ability to continue borrowing money to pay its bills after the current 14.3 trillion dollar limit expires next Tuesday.

Many have predicted dire consequences for the American and global economies should the United States default.

Mr Obama warned of a "reckless and irresponsible" outcome without a compromise by August 2. He urged Americans to make their voices heard and let their representatives know they support "a balanced approach to reducing the deficit."

Mr Boehner responded that Mr Obama wanted "a blank cheque today" and declared "this is just not going to happen."

Mr Obama and the Democrats see it differently, accusing tea party Republicans of putting ideological purity ahead of reality and what is best for the country.

"The only reason this balanced approach isn't on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach - an approach that doesn't ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all," Mr Obama said.

The president and his Democratic allies have sought a plan that would cut the spiralling US deficit and debt through a package of deep cuts in government spending while increasing tax revenues through revocation of loopholes and the rate cuts for wealthy Americans instituted under former President George W. Bush.

Republicans, under the sway of their tea party wing, refuse to even consider higher taxes.

The latest measure Mr Boehner and the Republican leadership have presented in the House, in addition to spending cuts and an increase in the debt limit to tide the Treasury over until next year, called for a second increase in borrowing authority sometime next year that would hinge on approval of additional spending cuts sometime during the election year.

Mr Obama said he opposed such a two-stage move because it was not likely to prevent a downgrading of America's triple-A credit standing.

The White House backed the new Senate Democratic plan even though it omitted Mr Obama's requirement of increased tax revenues.

Echoing the disgust he voiced on Friday when Mr Boehner walked away from talks with Mr Obama, the president said: "The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government."

Mr Boehner countered: "The president has often said we need a 'balanced' approach, which in Washington means we spend more, you pay more." He then challenged Mr Obama assertion on the status of talks, saying there "is no stalemate in Congress."

Yesterday, the White House backed the new Senate Democratic plan even though it omitted Mr Obama's requirement of increased tax revenues. It would raise the debt limit by 2.4 trillion dollars to carry the country into 2013, beyond the next election. It calls for 2.7 trillion dollars in federal spending cuts, but assumes 1 trillion dollars of that would derive from the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Echoing the disgust he voiced on Friday when Mr Boehner walked away from talks, the president said: "The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government."

Mr Obama quoted Ronald Reagan - a hero to many conservatives - who also spoke of a balanced plan and stressed a need for compromise.

Mr Obama had only just walked away from the podium in the White House East Room when Mr Boehner appeared on national television screens from the Capitol.

"The president has often said we need a 'balanced' approach, which in Washington means we spend more, you pay more," Mr Boehner said.

"The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank cheque six months ago, and he wants a blank cheque today. That is just not going to happen."

Directly challenging the president, Mr Boehner said there "is no stalemate in Congress".

He said the Republicans' latest plan would clear the House, could clear the Senate and then would be sent to Mr Obama for his signature.

The back-to-back televised speeches did little to suggest that a compromise was in the offing, and the next steps appeared to be votes in the House and Senate on the rival plans by midweek.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell urged the president to shift his position rather than "veto the country into default".

And Mr Reid slammed tea party-backed Republicans who make up a significant portion of the House Republican rank and file. He warned against allowing "these extremists" to dictate the country's course.

The Reid legislation in the Senate drew praise not only from Mr Obama but also from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi - and criticism from Republicans.

There were concessions from both sides embedded in the competing legislation, but they were largely obscured by the partisan rhetoric of the day.

With their revised plan, House Republicans backed off an earlier insistence on 6 trillion dollars in spending cuts to raise the debt limit.

Mr Obama did not repeat his vow to veto the revised House measure, as he had with an earlier version calling for deep cuts, a cap on spending and passage by both houses of a constitutional amendment requiring the federal government to operate only under a balanced budget.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer called the new House proposal "not a serious attempt to avert default because it has no chance of passing the Senate".

Not all Republicans were happy with their leadership's decision to scale back legislation which had cleared the House last week, only to die in the Senate.

Among House conservatives who have provided the political muscle for the Republican drive to cut spending, the revised legislation was a disappointment. "I cannot support the plan," said Jim Jordan, one of the leading advocates of the so-called "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan which cleared the House last week and died in the Senate.

But others among rank-and-file Republicans said their constituents were voicing concerns other than the rising federal debt - worries about Social Security pension payments to retirees and Medicare insurance coverage for the elderly, both Republican targets for deep spending cuts.