WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and congressional leaders on Monday emerged still deeply divided over how to slash the nation’s debt, with reality sinking in that even a middle-ground proposal was not big enough to succeed and would not to get through Congress anyway.
As time runs perilously short for action, Obama challenged top lawmakers to return to the White House today with fresh ideas for a debt-reduction plan that could pass the House and Senate. All sides are scrambling to reach a deal as part of a tradeoff in which Congress would agree to extend the nation’s debt limit by Aug. 2 to prevent a catastrophic government default on its bills.
Turning up the pressure, Obama declared that he would reject any stopgap extension of the nation’s borrowing limit, imploring lawmakers once again to reach one of the most sizable debt-reduction deals in years.
He refused to even entertain a backup plan if that doesn’t happen.
“We are going to get this done,” Obama insisted in a news conference.