A meeting between Senate Finance Committee staffers and business lobbyists on the so-called tax extenders bill apparently did not go well, according to several sources. 

Lobbyists were divided over what they were willing to give up: tax increases on foreign income or not extending tax breaks like the research and development credit. 

Staffers tried to sway their support for the bill by postponing the effective dates on some of the tax increases. The suggestion was not well received by lobbyists. 

The CEO economic survey released by the Business Roundtable on Wednesday showed that corporate leaders are bullish on the economy but remain cautious about making capital purchases. 

"Our member CEOs plan to continue hiring and expect improved sales," said Ivan Seidenberg, the Roundtable's chair, who is also the chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications. "That said, our CEOs are demonstrating some caution in the area of capital expenditures, with fewer planning to increase spending and more keeping it level."

The survey captured CEOs' sentiments in the second quarter of 2010 and compared them with attitudes from the first quarter of the year. 

The Congressional Black Caucus attacked Republican senators on Wednesday for sitting on jobs legislation.

House Ways and Means Chairman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) on Wednesday weighed in on the tax extenders debate taking place in the Senate by urging the upper chamber to pass the bill this week. 

"We have a million and a quarter who lost their unemployment benefits," he said, adding, "I don't know what more anybody can ask of necessity. ... This is an emergency." 

After debating the bill for more than eight weeks, the Senate has only been able to move the "doc fix" portion of the bill, a term that describes delaying Medicare payment cuts to physicians. House leaders have resisted voting on the measure because of how its pension relief offset would affect multi-employers. 

House members on Wednesday received a letter signed by 305 organizations urging them to oppose the Disclose Act. The bill is slated to be vetted by the Rules Committee later today and be subjected to a floor vote on Thursday. 

"This legislation is a threat to the First Amendment rights of businesses across the country," the letter states. "It represents a significant departure from past campaign-finance legislation, which sought to treat unions and corporations comparably and was framed in a genuinely bipartisan manner." 

Not long ago, a similar letter was sent to lawmakers signed by more than 200 organizations. But with the impeding vote, opposition efforts are being ramped up to stop the bill from passing the House. 

Sales of new homes plummeted 33 percent in May to the lowest level on record following the expiration of a federal government tax credit. 

Sales dropped to an annual pace of 300,000 last month from April, the slowest pace since 1963 and largest monthly drop on record, startling analysts who predicted that demand would decline but nowhere near as much as it did, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. 

Sales have decreased 78 percent from their peak in July 2005. 

Economists had expressed concern that the housing market could go into a deep slump after the government tax credit — that provided up to $8,000 — expired April 30. 

Sales dropped across the country in May, with the West leading the pack, recording a 53 percent decrease. Sales fell 33 percent in the Northeast, 25 percent in the South and 24 percent in the Midwest. 

House Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) and fellow conservatives have sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner expressing strong opposition to the administration urging the G-20 to continue economic spending policies instead of focusing on deficit reduction.

"We write in anticipation of the G-20 meeting to be held this coming weekend in Toronto, Canada and to express our concern with the reported policies advocated by the United States to address the global financial crisis," the letter states. "In particular, we are disturbed to know that despite Europe's growing debt crisis the United States continues to push policies in the international community that promote unsustainable global government borrowing and spending."

Deficit reduction must take a backseat to policies driving economic growth, according to President Barack Obama’s economic team.

A "budget enforcement resolution" that would set discretionary spending levels for next year could be ready on Wednesday. 

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) told the Hill on Tuesday night that the resolution could be ready to file Wednesday but it hadn't "passed final review."

Earlier Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Democrats would forgo a traditional budget resolution for 2011. 

Those discretionary spending levels would cut spending unrelated to security, going beyond the freeze proposed by President Barack Obama, Hoyer said.

One option would cut non-security discretionary spending by 2 percent for each of the next three years and freeze that spending for the following two years. The fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats championing that cut said it would save more than $400 billion over the next decade, more than the $250 billion that would be saved by Obama’s three-year freeze.

— Walter Alarkon contributed to this post.