The deadlock actually means that the government will steadily reduce its support for the economy during the second half of 2011. The Fed will complete a plan at the end of June to bolster growth by buying the last of $600 billion in Treasury securities. More than 80 percent of the president’s $800 billion stimulus plan has been disbursed. Last year’s package of $225 billion in tax cuts and jobless benefits will expire at the end of the year.

Both parties seized on the latest economic data as evidence for their positions on deficit reduction, an issue that has displaced jobs as the focus of public debate.

The government must borrow money to pay its bills, the amount it can borrow is set by Congress, and the present limit — the debt ceiling — will be reached in early August. Since taking control of the House and gaining Senate seats last year, Republicans have seized on the need to raise the debt ceiling to demand a broader deal on deficit reduction, including immediate cuts in spending.

Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, said the “administration doesn’t understand that one of the biggest impediments to job creation today is the lack of confidence, a lack of confidence in the future that comes from an administration where regulators have gone wild, from an administration threatening the largest single tax increase in America’s history and an administration that doesn’t take seriously the debt that is threatening our job creators.”

Democrats have been forced into the defensive argument that threatening not to raise the debt ceiling is irresponsible and will certainly shake the confidence of financial markets.

They argue that public spending programs like the stimulus and expanded jobless benefits have provided an incomplete but important response to the devastation wrought by the financial crisis. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, noted that employment has risen for 15 consecutive months.