ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf reports: The six bipartisan Senate Finance Negotiators emerged from a closed-door, senators-only meeting in an office in the Capitol Building to declare that their talks will go on.

The group was at an impasse all day over how to proceed with their troubled quest to find middle ground on health reform.

The talks will go on, the negotiators announced today. But there will be no consideration of a finished bill next week as Democrats had hoped. Senators are scheduled to adjourn for a month August 7th, so the health care debate is sure to drag long into the Fall.

Sen. Charles Grassley spoke on-camera and was animated when he said part of the problem for negotiators is that journalists are too hungry to report on what?s going on behind the closed doors of the meeting room. The talks have progressed for weeks in the Capitol Office of Sen. Max Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

?You folks keep looking for the news and there ain?t no news,? he said.

Grassley brushed off reports that the three Republican negotiators ? Grassley, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Washington and Mike Enzi of Wyoming were being pressured by other Republicans to abandon the talks.

?Do we look like we?ve been pressured,? exclaimed Grassley to the scrum of reporters that crowded in the cramped hallway waiting to see if the bipartisan negotiators could find common ground to keep their talks going.

Baucus ceded that there would be no bill for the full committee to consider next week, as Democratic leaders had hoped. But he said it was more important to get a bipartisan bill.

Obama Budget Chief: Numbers Looking Worse

ABC News’ Teddy Davis reports:

President Obama’s budget chief said Tuesday that he expects a forthcoming government revenue estimate to reflect a worsening economic picture.

“The numbers will be more negative than anticipated,” said Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, referring to a “re-estimate” that will be released later this week or early next week by the Congressional Budget Office. Orszag expects the CBO numbers to show declining government revenue because the fourth quarter of 2008 came in “much weaker than anticipated” and that information was not factored into CBO’s earlier estimates.

Orszag made his comments during a pen-and-pad lunch with reporters in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. He was asked to explain comments made earlier in the day by President Obama following his meeting with the Democratic chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees.

Without specifically identifying which numbers he was referring to, Obama said, “We’re going to get some numbers with respect to the budget that may make this even tougher in the coming couple of weeks.”

During the hour-long lunch at the St. Regis Hotel, Orszag also touched on health care, cap-and-trade, taxes, and Social Security.

On whether the Obama administration will use the budget reconciliation process to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Orszag left the Obama administration room to maneuver.

“On reconciliation, I’m just going to say again what we’ve already said which is that it is not where we would like to start but it’s premature to be taking it off the table at this point,” said Orszag. “We’d like to avoid it if possible,” he added, “but we’re not taking it off the table.”

He said the Obama administration would like to see if there is some other way to get done important legislation without using the budget reconciliation process which makes it possible to circumvent the usual requirement to get 60 votes in the Senate. In a nod towards those who think Obama should use the budget reconciliation process to ensure that his agenda does not get bottled up in the Senate he said the process is used more often than critics like to acknowledge.

Asked if Obama is committed to finding a different $525 billion revenue enhancer over eight years to pay for his “Making Work Pay” tax credit if the Senate refuses to consider cap-and-trade as part of the budget, Orszag sidestepped the question.

“I think I’m not going to be negotiating with myself and undertaking hypotheticals,” said Orszag. “We’ve put forward a way of financing Making Work Pay and that’s what we favor.”

He also sidestepped a question about whether the Obama administration would funnel money to industries hit hard by cap-and-trade.

On Social Security, he said “changes will be necessary” to the nation’s retirement program. He emphasized, however, that the single most important thing the U.S. could do to put itself on a firm financial footing is to reform health care.

With regards to tax policy, he rejected GOP criticism that Obama is raising taxes in the middle of a recession by saying that the tax hikes don’t come until 2011 when he expects the US to be out of its recession. He also rejected the argument that higher marginal tax rates on the richest two or three percent hurt growth, pointing to former President Clinton’s experience in 1993.

“A lot of the doom and gloom that you’re hearing is exactly the same set of arguments that were made in 1993,” said Orszag.

ABC News’ Ferdous Al-Faruque contributed to this report.