Boehner: Budget fight endures despite meetings

The fight between Democrats and Republicans over how to address the nation's fiscal health continues even after a week of meetings between President Barack Obama and Republicans on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner said.

"It's always a good thing to engage in more conversation," Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "But when you get down to the bottom line, the president believes that we have to have more taxes from the American people -- we're not going to get very far."

Boehner says he "absolutely" trusts the president -- not that they don't have their differences. He said the two have a good relationship and that they're "open with each other . . . honest with each other." But he said they're trying to bridge some big differences.

One issue they agree on: The United States doesn't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. Some conservatives criticized Obama when he said last week that the country doesn't have an immediate debt crisis.

Boehner says a debt crisis does loom in the years ahead because entitlement programs are not sustainable if they aren't changed. He says balancing the budget will help the economy. -- Combined news services