The Republicans and Democrats in Washington are moving towards the same goal, but on entirely different roads. The Democrat plan is to reduce the deficit by $1.85 trillion over the next 10 years through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts. The Republican plan, on the other hand, are looking at a savings of $4.6 trillion without raising taxes, but plans to make severe cuts in healthcare and reorganize the structure of certain social programs that would affect the poor.

NBC shares how the standoff between Democrats and Republicans will lead to greater problems for Congress in resolving the fiscal deficit to recover the economy:

“The budget plan was passed by a 50-49 vote in the Democratic-controlled chamber. Four Democratic senators facing tough re-election campaigns in 2014 joined all Senate Republicans in opposing the measure, which seeks to raise nearly $1 trillion in new tax revenues by closing some tax breaks for the wealthy.

The Senate budget, which reflects Democratic priorities of boosting near-term job growth and preserving social safety net programs, will square off in coming months against a Republican-focused budget passed by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

Neither of the non-binding blueprints has a chance of passage in the opposing chamber, leaving Congress no closer to resolving deep differences over how to shrink U.S. deficits and grow the economy. But they give each party a platform from which to tout their respective fiscal visions.”

Due to the different stances between Democrats and Republicans, there will be efforts made to lead them to a compromise. It would be interesting to see how much each party compromises and on what terms.

To cool off the conflict, Congress concentrated on other issues. NBC reports:

“Among notable amendments, the Senate found strong support for allowing states more authority to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases, approval of the controversial Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, and repealing a tax on medical devices imposed by President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

The Senate also voted 99-0 to end policies that subsidized large banks considered “too big to fail” but came out against imposing taxes on industrial carbon emissions.”

There is still time for both the parties to develop a strategy to bring down the fiscal deficit, and come up with a comprehensive plan to speed up the economic recover without burdening the public. However, each party will have to compromise its vision, and that is the one problem that doesn’t seem to have a solution as of yet.