WASHINGTON - Time running short to raise the government's borrowing limit, President Barack Obama today hailed a plan by a bipartisan senators' group on deficit reduction as the kind of "balanced approach" the nation is looking for. He said it's time for Congress as a whole to rally around such a proposal.
"We don't have any more time to engage in symbolic gestures, we don't have any more time to posture. It's time to get down to the business of actually solving this problem," the president said.
Obama spoke even as House Republicans pushed toward a vote on legislation that would require trillions in spending cuts and a balanced-budget constitutional amendment in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. That plan is unlikely to get through the Senate, and Obama has said he would veto it.
Facing an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt limit, Obama said he would call House Speaker John Boehner after the vote to invite him and other leaders back to the White House for meetings in coming days.