(MCT) — WASHINGTON — Once-upbeat talks over the nation’s year-end budget crisis stalled Thursday as Republicans rejected the latest White House offer and emboldened Democrats held firm on President Barack Obama’s insistence that wealthier Americans must pay more taxes.

House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, struck a gloomy note after speaking by phone with Obama late Wednesday — a conversation described as “curt” by one source — and meeting Thursday morning with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in the Capitol.