Mr. Prakken said tighter spending would "slow economic growth unless it was offset with lower interest rates through the Fed".
Boston Scientific ended up winning Guidant with a cash and stock offer of about $27 billion, or $78.88 a share, which it partly offset with about $6.3 billion in side deals with Abbott.
On Monday, recognizing the political cost of standing in the way of a middle-class tax cut, they dropped their demand that it be offset with additional, deep spending cuts.
In one case, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued a statement noting that Dan Coats, the Republican Senate candidate in Indiana, had backed Republican efforts to block the jobless pay unless it was offset with cuts elsewhere.
Mr. Prakken said tighter spending would "slow economic growth unless it was offset with lower interest rates through the Fed". But with interest rates already near zero, the best the Fed could do this week was signal that rates would remain ultralow well into 2013.
More Republicans are speaking out in favor of NIH funding, but the clear majority of them will demand that it be offset with cuts elsewhere.
Robert Zubrin, the head of the Mars Society, figures a private explorer could get there within a decade for $8 billion to $10 billion, and a good chunk of that cost — maybe all of it — could be offset with revenues from media rights and marketing tie-ins.
The Pathmark pharmacy workers are being paid lower wages than their counterparts at other major chains, and the company has offered an increase only if it can offset it with decreased health benefits, leaving the pharmacists with no net gain, Ms. Vallone said.
House Republicans are supportive of tax relief for working families and small businesses, but the temporary relief proposed by the President must not cause unforeseen harm to the economy 15 months from now and it shouldn't be offset with permanent tax increases; and it shouldn't come at the expense of the nation's charities.
It may however, be offset with the arrival of the All Black centre Malakai Fekitoa, who is currently at Toulon but is linked with a move to Wasps.
Over time, though, those companies backed away from their ambitions, resulting in business losses for Omnifone that it never managed to offset with other activities.
