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Hospital associations, labor groups, tea party supporters and die-hard liberals are plunging into the debt battle between President Barack Obama and Congress as it whirls toward a final showdown.

A union representing state workers proposed changes to a government pension program on Wednesday that could require some employees to stay in their jobs longer before retiring.

With the debt ceiling crisis still looming, a second recession could hit, causing another decline in the job market. Hiring freezes, in particular, could once again be the reality facing job seekers, employees and employers, and human resource departments are already preparing for what could be another downturn.

Six days away from a potentially calamitous government default, House Republicans appeared to be coalescing Wednesday around a work-in-progress plan by House Speaker John Boehner to increase the U.S. borrowing limit and chop $1 trillion in federal spending.

Budget analysts said Wednesday that a Senate Democratic plan to reduce the deficit and increase the nation's borrowing authority would save $2.2 trillion over a decade, more than a rival House Republican proposal but less than promised.

Wealthy countries all over the world are dealing with debts and strained budgets as they mop up after the Great Recession and brace for the budget-busting retirement of the baby boomer generation. But the United States is in a bigger fix than almost anyone else.