A public backlash against the political logjam in Washington has pushed Republicans to moderate their hardline stance on the budget, raising hopes of a deal with the White House ahead of next week’s deadline to raise the debt ceiling.

公众对华盛顿政治僵局的反弹促使共和党人软化其在预算问题上的强硬立场，提高了他们在下周提高债务上限的最后期限之前与白宫达成协议的可能性。

Senior Republicans were galvanised by an NBC/Wall St Journal poll showing the lowest ratings for the party since the survey started in 1989, prompting them to submit plans to jump start talks with Barack Obama and the Democrats.

美国全国广播公司(NBC)和《华尔街日报》(WSJ)联合发布的民调显示，共和党支持率跌至自1989年开始该调查以来的最低点，这刺激了资深共和党人士，促使他们提交计划，投入与巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)和民主党的谈判。

Eleven days into a partial government shutdown, and less than a week before the country hits its statutory borrowings limit, the White House and Republicans have now begun trading proposals for a deal.

在政府部分关门进入第11天，同时距离美国触及法定借款上限不到一周之际，白宫和共和党开始就签订协议交换提议。

Republican demands that Barack Obama cut funding for or delay his healthcare law – a deal-breaker for Democrats – now appear to be off the table. The current discussions include trimming health benefits for wealthier elderly Americans and easing cuts in spending on defence and other departments in a previous budget accord.

共和党似乎不再要求奥巴马削减对医改法律的拨款，或者延迟实施该法——民主党已表明绝不接受这一点。当前讨论的内容包括：削减较为富裕的老年人的医疗福利，以及减少在早先预算协议中对国防等政府部门的支出削减规模。

However, the shape of any agreement remains unclear, with the White House and both parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives clustering around rival plans.

然而，协议框架仍未形成，白宫以及参众两院的两党都坚守自己的计划。

The talks follow meetings at the White House yesterday with Senate Republicans, and on Thursday evening with House Republicans who have driven an unyielding campaign on the budget and the debt ceiling.

昨日奥巴马与参议院共和党人士在白宫开会，周四晚间他与在预算和债务上限问题上迄今坚持强硬立场的众议院共和党人开会。

Republicans and Democrats are running up against a deadline of October 17, when the Treasury says the US will need congressional approval to start borrowing again or face the prospect that it could run out of money to pay its bills.

两党人士面临10月17日的最后期限——财政部称，美国届时将需要国会批准开始再次借款，否则就会面临没钱付账单的前景。

Mr Obama has so far refused to negotiate under threat of a government shutdown and a refusal to lift the debt ceiling, a stand which has also been driven by Harry Reid, the Democrat’s Senate Majority leader.

奥巴马迄今拒绝在政府关门和拒绝提高债务上限的威胁下谈判。这一立场也获得了参议院多数党领袖、民主党人哈里·里德(Harry Reid)的支持。

The NBC/WSJ poll, in which twice as many respondents viewed the Republicans negatively rather than positively, dovetailed with findings by Gallup which recorded the party with a favourability rating of 28 per cent, the lowest in the survey’s history.

NBC/WSJ民调显示，对共和党持负面看法的受访者人数是持正面看法人数的两倍。这与盖洛普(Gallup)民调结果吻合，后者显示，共和党支持率为28%，为该调查历史上的最低水平。