WASHINGTON – Republicans pulled out of debt-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden with a flourish on Thursday, blaming Democrats for demanding tax increases as part of a deal rather than accepting more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare and other government programs.

“Let me be clear: Tax hikes are off the table,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

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Debt-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden were “in abeyance” Thursday after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, shown at his office, said he would not attend a negotiating session. The Associated Press

Boehner spoke shortly after the House GOP second-in-command, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, announced he would not attend a planned negotiating session and said it is “time for President Obama to speak clearly and resolve the tax issue.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney quickly obliged, while announcing that the talks were “in abeyance.” He said Obama supports a “balanced approach” to debt reduction.

“I would point that the president supports a balanced approach,” Carney said. “He does not support an approach that provides for a $200,000 tax cut for millionaires and billionaires paid for by a $6,000 a year hike in expenses and costs for seniors.”

Numerous officials have said in recent days that Obama and Boehner would soon take a more public role in the negotiations, as time grows short for confronting politically vexing questions over taxes and Medicare and other benefit programs.

As a result, it appeared that the day’s events marked an eruption of political maneuvering rather than a blow-up that would jeopardize the success of negotiations.

In general, the negotiations are aimed at producing legislation to cut future deficits while simultaneously lifting the $14.3 trillion limit on Treasury borrowing.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that without an increase in the debt limit by Aug. 2, the United States faces a first-ever default, with potentially catastrophic consequences for the economy.

Carney told reporters that Boehner had met unannounced with Obama at the White House Wednesday evening. The meeting was at the president’s initiative and was the first known encounter between the two men since their widely publicized round of golf last weekend.

Nor was it likely Democrats were taken by surprise by the day’s events, since Cantor informed Biden of his plans before making any announcement.

Adding to the intrigue, one GOP leadership aide said Cantor did not inform Boehner of his plan to withdraw from the talks until shortly before he did so. Nor was Cantor aware of Boehner’s trip to the White House the evening before, this aide said.

For his part, Cantor said the secretive Biden-led talks had “established a blueprint” for agreement on significant cuts in spending, but had reached an impasse because of the Democratic demand for taxes.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the other Republican participant, also said he would not attend the scheduled session, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell spoke in unusually biting terms of Democratic demands for new government spending as part of a debt-reduction deal.

“What planet are they on?” McConnell wondered aloud.

While accepting a need to raise the debt limit, Boehner has said that deficit cuts must exceed the size of any increase in borrowing authority – a position that neither Obama nor any other Democrat has challenged.

The president and Biden were meeting with House Democratic leaders at the White House when Cantor made his announcement.

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