President Barack Obama, clearly frustrated, announced on Friday that Republican House Speaker John Boehner had called off the debt ceiling and lower deficit talks.
“Speaker (John) Boehner is walking away from an extraordinarily fair deal,” Obama stated. According to Obama, the deal under discussion was tilted more towards what Republicans wanted.
But Boehner disputed the president’s characterization of the breakdown in the talks, saying that the White House had moved the “goal post.”
Some $3.5 trillion in spending cuts are on the table and Boehner said, $800 billion in revenue increases had been agreed upon. But, then an additional $400 billion dollars were “demanded by President Obama which would have been a tax increase.”
“It is the president who walked away and demanded more revenues,” Boehner said.
Obama said it had come down to the Republicans not seeming to have a capacity to say ‘yes.’ Notwithstanding the breakdown in the debt ceiling talks, Obama said he remained confident that a deal would be reached before the August 2, deadline.
“I remain confident we will get an extension on the debt limit and we will not default,” Obama said. “I cannot believe that Congress would be that irresponsible.”
Obama said he would accept the sole responsibility for raising the debt limit, if Congress passes a plan being worked on by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, but that he will “sign an extension to 2013.” He added though, that this was not enough and that the underlying issues of the debt and deficit ought to be tackled.
Obama has summoned both the Republican and Democratic leadership to the White House for a meeting on Saturday at 11:00 a.m., to as he put it, “have an answer in terms of how they intend to get this thing done in the course of the next week.”
“The American people expect action,” Obama said.
