Along with this agreement may come some statement about deficit reduction.

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Of course, the chancellor then went on to add another two years to his deficit reduction plan in his Autumn Statement.

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Investec economist Philip Shaw said he still expected the deficit to overshoot the Office for Budget Responsibility's forecasts from the Autumn Statement last year.

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"They voted to let the entire burden of deficit reduction fall squarely on the middle class, " he said of his rivals, in a statement on Thursday.

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Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a leading Republican voice on taxes and the deficit, will undergo treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, he said in a written statement on Saturday.

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While Mr Cridland supported the coalition government's determination to cut the deficit, he urged the Chancellor George Osborne to unveil a "Plan A Plus" in his autumn statement later this month.

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