Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) is opposed to the plan by President Obama and other Democratic leaders to only extend the tax cuts benefiting the middle class that were enacted under President George W. Bush. 

Consumer borrowing dropped in July for a sixth straight month as households shaved off more debt and reined in their use of credit cards. 

Borrowing fell by $3.6 billion compared with July following a revised $1 billion drop in June that was less than initially estimated, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. 

The Fed tracks credit card debt and non-revolving loans, such as auto loans. 

With a lack of job creation and continued economic uncertainty, consumers are opting to curtail their spending, save more and pay off their debt. 

Overall debt declined by 1.8 percent in July as revolving debt dropped by $4.4 billion or 6.3 percent, the Fed said today. Non-revolving debt increased by $758 million or 0.6 percent, the third straight monthly gain. 

The pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries stand to benefit from President Obama's proposal to expand the research and development tax credit, according to Wall Street analysts.

Obama is pressing Congress to expand the tax credit by about 20 percent and make it permanent. First introduced in 1981, the credit has been extended 13 times and expired eight times — most recently on Dec. 31, 2009.

"AdvaMed has long supported making the R&D tax credit permanent," said Brett Loper, senior executive vice president for government affairs for the Advanced Medical Technology Association. "We look forward to seeing the details of this new proposal and the other tax changes being discussed today to determine how they will affect America’s medical technology companies."

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) slammed President Obama on Wednesday for what he said was a mischaracterization of congressional Republicans in the president's economic speech.

Cantor accused Obama of saying Republicans had not proposed specific cuts to federal spending, and asked the president to "clarify or withdraw" the remark.

"President Obama must have misspoken today, because I have personally sat across the table from him and suggested specific ways to cut spending," Cantor said. "Furthermore, House Republican Leader John Boehner and I urged President Obama to work with Republicans to cut spending by using his authority to send Congress a 'rescissions' package. In fact, we sent President Obama a letter twice pledging to work together with him on that effort. We still have not heard back — seven months later.

"It doesn’t end there," he added. "Through the YouCut program House Republicans have offered over $120 billion in spending cuts, only to be voted down by Democrats in the House. Finally, House Republicans Jeb Hensarling and Paul Ryan have introduced a 'Cut Spending Now' package of specific cuts that would save taxpayers more than $1.3 trillion.

The Hensarling/Ryan package included a $925 billion savings over 10 years if spending is held at 2008 levels. The plan also includes returning unused economic stimulus, saving $266 billion, saving $16 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, reduce federal government employment and freeze salaries to save a combined $65 billion, adopt the line-item veto to save up to $23 billion and reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for an estimated savings of $30 billion, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. 

"President Obama is entitled to his opinion, but he’s not entitled to his own facts," Cantor went on, "and with that in mind I am asking him to either clarify or withdraw the accusation that he made earlier today.”

The president gave the speech in Cleveland.

--Vicki Needham contributed to this story. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the expected $1.3 trillion U.S. deficit a "message of weakness internationally."

Job openings rose slightly in July at a 2.3 percent pace, a positive sign for job seekers as employers look to expand as the economy slowly recovers. 

Openings increased by 178,000 to 3.04 million in July, while the hiring rate was steady but unchanged at 3.3 percent, according to the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, released Wednesday.

Although the month-to-month change is small, the number of job openings has risen by 704,000, or 30 percent, since the recent trough in July 2009. 

There were 4.2 million hires in July, 10 percent higher than the most recent low in June 2009. 

House GOP Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) criticized President Obama’s call for business taxes on Wednesday and said Obama should support an extension of all of the Bush tax cuts.

The No. 3 House Republican said it would be a “profoundly bad idea” to implement Obama’s proposal for certain business tax cuts if Obama also raises taxes on wealthier taxpayers.

“You don’t pay for tax breaks with tax increases, it would be a profoundly bad idea for this administration to advance a few, good boutique tax cuts but pay for them with across-the-board tax increases on job creators in this country,” Pence told reporters on a conference call Wednesday morning.

House Appropriations Committee ranking Republican Jerry Lewis (Calif.) is pushing for Congress to freeze spending at 2008 levels, which would save $100 billion this year. 

Lewis joined House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) in calling for the freeze on most non-defense discretionary spending at 2008 funding levels. House Republican leaders also are calling for a two-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. 

Congress is expected to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. 

"Multiple bailouts, failed stimulus experiments, unrestrained government spending and record deficits have pushed our nation to the brink of bankruptcy," Lewis said Wednesday in a statement. "We must rein in spending now to get back on a sustainable and prosperous financial path."

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) on Wednesday launched a multi-state, multi-million-dollar ad campaign opposing the energy tax increase President Obama seeks to pay for his $50 billion infrastructure initiative. 

The ad's message is that tax increases will limit job growth in the country.