Faced with a looming deadline, lawmakers launched a crucial week of debt-reduction talks today, seeking to break through differences on taxes and health care, Reuters reported.

Vice President Joe Biden met on Capitol Hill with a group of six Democratic and Republican lawmakers looking for trillions of dollars in savings. That would allow Congress to cover the country’s borrowing needs through the 2012 elections.

“It’s crunch time in those meetings. We have hit the point at which we are at some really tough stuff,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, one of two Republicans in the talks.

Biden said negotiators have tentatively agreed on a number of cuts, but they had hard work ahead to overcome the divide on taxes and health benefits.

They are trying to reach an agreement on how to reduce the country’s budget deficits by $4 trillion in the next 10 years in order to give lawmakers the political cover to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and prevent a default.

The Treasury Department has warned that the country could default on its loans if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit by Aug. 2, a scenario that could push the country back into recession. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has participated in the talks, predicted the group would have a deal in time so the country can keep borrowing money to pay its bills.