(MCT) WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday rejected a new White House offer aimed at averting the tax increases and automatic spending cuts that are due to take effect in three weeks and countered with a plan of his own, an indication that the two sides are starting to negotiate.

President Barack Obama and Boehner, an Ohio Republican, spoke by phone late Tuesday, the second time they’d spoken in three days, after a face-to-face session Sunday at the White House. Neither side released details of Tuesday’s conversation or the new offers.