Speaker John Boehner told President Barack Obama Saturday that he would not move forward with talks on a large-scale deficit reduction plan, pointing to taxes and entitlements as the main sticking points.

Boehner will still attend a meeting Sunday at the White House with other congressional leaders, but a Republican familiar with the negotiations said a smaller package worth more than $2 trillion would be the speaker’s target for raising the debt limit.

In a statement released by the Ohio Republican Saturday night — just a day before talks with Obama — Boehner said the “White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes.”

“I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase,” Boehner said in the statement.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer countered in his own statement Saturday night that Obama wants “a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree.”

“Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington,” Pfeiffer said. “The president believes that now is the moment to rise above that cynicism and show the American people that we can still do big things. And so tomorrow, he will make the case to congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge.”

For a few days, at least, it appeared that Republicans and Democrats could craft a historic bargain that would not only raise the debt ceiling but also cut away at the $14 trillion deficit. But the White House and congressional leaders had an obstacle: a House Republican Conference averse to any additional revenue.

Indeed, there were splits in the House GOP leadership. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was pushing for a smaller-scale deal, wary of how the GOP would be able to pass a deal that topped $4 trillion since as much as $1 trillion could come from additional tax revenue.

“As Eric has said for weeks, tax increases that the Democrats are insisting upon cannot pass the House and are the last thing Congress should be doing with so many people out of work,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for Cantor. “Eric has always believed the Biden group identified between 2 and 2.5 trillion in spending cuts that could represent the framework for an agreement.”

A Republican close to Boehner said he and the president spoke by phone earlier in the evening before Boehner issued his statement. While stepping back from the larger package, the speaker was described as still insisting that any increase in the debt ceiling in August be matched dollar-for-dollar by deficit reduction measures.

That will not be an easy matter given the Republican hard line against new tax revenues. Weeks of negotiations led by Vice President Joseph Biden have identified deficit reduction in the range of $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion in savings. But that leaves a gap of $400 billion to $700 billion to be filled and Democrats have argued strongly that revenues must be part of the mix.

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