Debt ceiling crisis deepens as political parties fail to reach agreement.

Centrist Democrats are secretly meeting with GOP centrists to find a compromise on the debt ceiling, despite opposition from party leaders who want a clean debt ceiling increase. The talks remain in the early stages, and the group of moderate Democrats may not have helped their cause by getting involved just as party leaders began seeing a political advantage in the fiscal fight. Republican leaders won’t yet describe precisely what they want in exchange for their votes to raise the nation’s borrowing ceiling.