Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he has invited President Obama and Vice President Biden to Capitol Hill Wednesday for deficit talks. Reid says the White House is on board, and the White House economic team is expected to attend as well.

The meeting may take place at White House if Capitol Hill doesn't work, Reid said.

Earlier today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he invited the president to come to the Capitol today to meet with Senate Republicans to talk about "what's actually possible" in the deficit talks.

"The President does not seem to get it," McConnell said.

McConnell's spokesman tells NBC, "I hope he accepts."

His office also struck a partisan tone, saying the Kentucky senator would "invite President Obama to the Capitol today to speak with Senate Republicans and explain his plans to hike taxes by hundreds of billions."

It's possible the Senate may come into session next week, a week they are scheduled to be on recess for Fourth of July. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will meet with the Democratic caucus this afternoon at 4:30 pm ET to take the temperature of members.

The caucus meeting was previously scheduled by Democratic leadership to readout their meeting with the president this afternoon and bring the members up to speed on the deficit negotiations.

The aide said the sentiment by some senators to stay in Washington during recess was a direct result of President Obama's criticism at the press conference today.

And in a few minutes, several conservative Republicans senators, including Jim DeMint, Kelly Ayotte, Tom Coburn, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Jeff Sessions, and Mike Lee, are about to hold a news conference, objecting to recess next week.

All this comes on the heels of President Obama’s news conference today, where he said this: "If by the end of this week, we have not seen substantial progress, then I think members of Congress need to understand we are going to start having to cancel things and stay here until we get it done. You know? They're in one week; they're out one week. And then, they're saying, Obama's got to step in it. You need to be here. I've been here."

So as the Aug. 2^nd deadline approaches, where does everything stand?

No one sees any progress or movement. Because of that, Senate leadership aides -- Republican and Democratic – said one way forward could be a short-term deal, maybe something like seven months because of the amount they think they can agree on -- about $1 trillion. 

But that appears to be a non-starter on the House side with Boehner-Cantor. Cantor does not want two votes. Boehner sees this as the time to act.

"This is the moment," Boehner aide Michael Steel said, "no reason to kick the can down the road again."

So that leaves both sides deadlocked -- with neither side seeing a path forward, except one that maybe leads to a shortened holiday.

Senate Republicans are touting their 11:30 am ET press conference on a Balanced-Budget Amendment as a counter to President Obama's East Room press conference today. Republicans contend they are offering responsible solutions to the deficit crisis while the President is arguing for more taxes and more spending.

"He's going to be talking about raising taxes; we're going to be talking about a balanced budget," said one GOP aide.

Another GOP aide added, "At the same time the president explains to reporters why he thinks taxpayers should take the hit, a large group of Senate Republicans will be fighting to make the government balance its budget instead."

The balanced-budget amendment faces an uphill battle, because it would need a two-thirds majority for passage, as Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) indicated on the Senate floor this morning.

Also on the floor this morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell showed no signs of compromise. Calling the debate on the debt ceiling "illuminating" and Democrats' position "astonishing," he slammed the president for going to a manufacturing plant in Iowa yesterday to "tout jobs" and then "looking to saddle manufacturing companies with billions of dollars in new taxes"

"This isn't a negotiation, it's a parody," he said. "He can't call for tax hikes and jobs creation; its one or the other."

McConnell said Democrats had to be "held accountable," contending they had mismanaged the "national checkbook."

"Democrats want a bailout from the taxpayers," he said. He went on: "Democrats' spending spree has brought us to the brink of economic calamity."

He said this argument is about "spending trillions more than you have and expecting someone else to pick up the tab," "not about rich versus poor."

The irony, however, is that a substantial portion of the debt and deficits are the Bush tax cuts, two unfunded wars, and Medicare Part D.

McConnell acknowledged spending has been a bipartisan affair.

"No one denies that both parties are guilty of spending beyond our means," McConnell said, before claiming, "But this White House has taken wasteful spending to new heights."

It all depends on what your definition of “hostilities” is.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing today on Libya -- pitting the administration’s lawyer who wrote the argument that the U.S. is not involved in “hostilities” in Libya against some senators -- would have been almost comedic if it weren’t so serious.

Harold Koh, the State Department lawyer defended the language, saying that the word "hostilities" in the War Powers Resolution is an "ambiguous term of art.”

That was after Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) challenged the contention that the U.S. was not in a shooting war in Libya.

On not seeking congressional approval, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) asked Koh if he is glad that the administration went down the route of "basically sticking a stick in the eye" of Congress, as it relates to Libya by not seeking Congressional authorization under the War Powers Resolution.

Koh essentially apologized. "Senator,” he said, “that was not our intent, and if you felt that stick was stuck that was not our goal."

He said he would have come up earlier for briefings. "I take responsibility," he said.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the committee’s ranking member, ripped into the Obama administration at the start of the hearing, saying the White House’s consultations with Congress have been "perfunctory, incomplete, and dismissive of reasonable requests." He said the Clinton administration on Bosnia worked much more closely -- in a “meaningful” way -- with Congress.

“There was no good reason why President Obama should have failed to seek Congressional authorization to go to war in Libya," Lugar said. "Presidents should not be able to avoid Constitutional responsibilities merely because engaging the people's representatives is inconvenient or uncertain.”

As for the “hostilities” argument, Lugar said, "The highly dubious arguments offered by the Obama Administration for not needing congressional approval break new ground in justifying a unilateral Presidential decision to use force."

Democrats say both sides have agreed to at least $1 trillion-plus in cuts over a 10-year period, but the goal is to get to between $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion in cuts and revenue to cover the government through 2012.

(The $1 trillion-plus figure, according to a leadership aide, would only last about seven months before the government hits the ceiling again. Republicans want cuts that equal the amount the debt limit is raised.)

So how do they make up the difference before the Aug. 2 deadline?

Republicans want more cuts. Democrats think it can be made up with a combination of cutting tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans, subsidies (like for ethanol, corporations and oil companies), tax “loopholes” (like for corporate jets and an inventory accounting provision called “Last In, First Out,” or LIFO), and defense cuts. Democrats are targeting up to $300 billion in Defense cuts, but don’t think they will get that much.

Democrats are setting up a populist pitch -- social services for the middle class and the poor versus breaks for corporations and the rich.

"Do we perpetuate a system that allows for subsidies in revenues for oil and gas, for example, or owners of corporate private jets, and then call for cuts in things like food safety or weather services?" White House Press Secretary Carney said at today's White House briefing, for example.

Democrats often talk about raising taxes on the richest, specifically on those making $1 million a year or more -- something that is popular in polls. But the aide said that’s not likely to be part of a final debt-ceiling deal, because that would mean undoing the tax-cut deal the president struck in December. (That extended cuts for two years, which would put the expiration of those at December 2012, right after the presidential election.)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will meet with President Obama in less than an hour and said in a floor speech today he will tell the president that tax increases have to be "off the table."

"I intend to ask the President what he's prepared to do, outside of raising taxes, about the massive deficits and debt that have accumulated on his watch,” he said, adding, "Move past the tax hikes and talk about what’s possible.”

He continued: "[Democrats] don't seem to understand that the voters didn't elect dozens of additional Republicans to the House of Representatives last November because they wanted their taxes raised. They sent them here to reverse policies that failed."

Speaking right before McConnell on the Senate floor this afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) offered few details about his meeting with the president at the White House. He called it "productive." He then accused Republican leadership of worrying more about politics than the economy in the deficit talks. 

"I hope they'll join us to create jobs and set aside their desire to please the tea party and defeat President Obama," Reid said.

Democrats had been trying to make the case -- aimed at McConnell -- that those items (tax deductions, subsidies, and "loopholes") are not tax increases at all.

McConnell doesn’t seem to be buying it.

He also again called on the president to include cuts to entitlements, something that has proven to be politically unpopular for Republicans who backed Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) controversial budget proposal that would partially privatize Medicare.

"Save our entitlements from bankruptcy," McConnell said.

Democrats think it's an issue that can help them take back the House and retain power in the Senate.

Those familiar with McConnell's thinking have said the senator has long believed that if entitlements were to be touched, both parties needed to do it together. Otherwise, the party that went first would suffer politically.

Democrats believe McConnell’s stance is purely political, that his intention is to draw Democrats into cutting Medicare to help blunt the advantage Democrats have currently on the issue. But Democrats, equally cognizant of the politics, don’t want to cede that advantage.

Highlighting the politics, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) – who walked out of the Vice President Biden-led debt-ceiling negotiations – also spoke on the floor in front of a sign that read: "The Obama Economic Record - He's Making it Worse" He responded to the White House proposals to raise new tax revenue through measures like ending tax breaks for oil companies.

"Leave it alone,” he said. “Just don’t touch it. … Don’t force us to raise taxes.”

As the Obama administration debates the scope of troop withdrawls from Afghanistan starting this summer, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin (D-MI) said this afternoon he wants to see at least 15,000 troops withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of the year. 

Levin told reporters he wants to see combat troops included with support troops. He was staking out his position on troop withdrawals ahead of the confirmation hearing he will chair on Thursday for Leon Panetta to be Secretary of Defense.

"I advocate a significant number of troops including combat troops," he said. "That's my position ... at least 15,000 by the end of this year."

Levin was responding to reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is advocating a small number of support troops be removed this summer. He does not expect Panetta to come to the hearing on Thursday with specific numbers, but he is calling on the president to stand by past promises.

"I think he should stick to the commitment he made that there would be a significant reduction of U.S. forces in July," Levin said. "I think that's going to be the key issue. Its a critically imporant issue."

He also noted that troop withdrawals are a spending issue.

"There are billions of dollars involved in this decision," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went on attack against Democrats this morning on the Senate floor, criticizing their attempt to capitalize on the controversial Rep. Paul Ryan Medicare plan by holding a vote on Ryan's budget this week.

"They aren't even pretending to put principle over politics here," the Kentucky Republican said. "According to Senator Schumer, their focus is on an election -- that's still almost two years away! Well, my suggestion is that Democrats start thinking about putting their names on something other than an attack ad. They could start with a budget."

McConnell, who has been careful not to offer a full-throated endorsement of Ryan's plan, said Ryan has shown "courage" by at least putting a budget plan out there.

"Democrats are showing none by ignoring our problems altogether," he said.

Republicans say Democrats have no deficit-reduction plan and are only interested in scoring political points by voting against the Ryan budget. Democrats say Republicans want to "kill Medicare," and they are out to make sure the program is protected.

Meanwhile, when the vote on the Ryan plan actually takes place is still being negotiated between Majority Leader Harry Reid and McConnell's offices. Reid's office says the vote is likely Wednesday or Thursday after the Senate finishes debate on the Patriot Act. To counter the Democrats, McConnell plans to call for a vote on President Obama's February budget and possibly two other Republican budget proposals as well -- Rand Paul and Pat Toomey.

Not one U.S. Senator has told NBC News that they have seen the official Osama bin Laden death photo. Many, who attended the CIA Director Leon Panetta briefings, say they were not shown in those sessions. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein says no senators have seen the photos. Feinstein adds she believes a fake has circulated.

Here's the confusion: Three senators -- Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), all Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, said they had seen a picture of the deceased bin Laden, but now are backing off.

Brown's office is backtracking and says the photo he referred to was not authentic. Brown agrees with President Obama and opposes the release.

Chambliss says he would make a judgment after he sees the picture but is concerned about the impact of distributing the death picture. 

"I was shown a photo by an individual that was represented to be a photo of bin Laden after he'd been shot," Chambliss said. "It appeared to be an accurate photo. It was not an official photo."

Ayotte said she was shown a photo by another senator on an electronic device. Ayotte said she believed the photo depicted a deceased bin Laden. Now, her office says she is not sure if the image she was shown is legitimate.

"I was shown a photo," Ayotte said. "I don't know whether its authentic. It appeared obviously to look like Osama bin laden but I can't verify whether its authentic or not."

Ayotte differs from the president and supports the release of the official death photo. She is the former attorney general of her home state and her husband Joe Daley is an Iraq war veteran.

NBC's Chuck Todd reported on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams that, according to multiple administration sources, "No senator has been shown a photo."

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry spoke to reporters off-camera after the Democratic Policy lunch this afternoon expressing concern about a further deterioration of U.S.- Pakistani relations in the wake of the bin Laden killing.

Kerry said he spoke to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last night, and they talked about trying to leverage this moment into hitting a "reset" button between the two countries.

"We have to be thoughtful about trying to make lemonade out of lemons," he said. He added, "If you want a radical Islamist government having possession of nuclear weapons and running Pakistan, then you can go off in a knee-jerk way that makes matters worse. I'm not making matters worse. And I think we have to be very thoughtful about this.”

Kerry said he was in no way defending the Pakistanis, but he said their cooperation was crucial in being able to track the couriers and survey the compound.

"We just got Osama bin Laden,” he said, emphatically. “And one of the reasons we got him is because we had intelligence people, who were there and able to do the work. If we lose that, then you put America at greater risk in my judgment, so I'd be very careful."

Kerry, who traveled to Pakistan in February to try to negotiate the release of CIA contactor Raymond Davis, said the hostility at that moment "was as high and as tense as I've ever seen it." He said the relationship has been at its "low ebb" in the last few months.

On whether the administration should release a photo of bin Laden, Kerry said it would be "premature."

“Frankly, there's a lot of evidence that there's a pretty broad acceptance that he's dead,” Kerry said, “and I think the facts of this case are pretty compelling, so i think its premature”

He said he had not personally seen the bin Laden photos, but they have been described to him in detail, and they are “graphic.”