Debt talks to resume Monday after testy 75-minute session
Politico
By: Carrie Budoff Brown and David Rogers
Barack Obama called congressional leaders back to the White House for another round of budget talks Monday, telling them during a testy meeting Sunday that they will gather daily until a deal is reached, Democratic and Republican officials said.
In a bid to take his case to voters, the president also will hold a press conference Monday morning, the White House announced at the conclusion of the meeting.
During a 75-minute session Sunday at the White House, Obama told the congressional leaders that America is not a “banana republic,” so he won’t agree to several months-long debt increases that raise fears of a default, according to two Democratic officials familiar with the meeting.
He argued several times that negotiators should work toward a large-scale package for reducing the deficit rather than the smaller one favored by Republicans, calling on them to stand up to their base to get it done. He said both parties would suffer politically, but they need to do something substantial, said a third Democratic official familiar with the meeting.
“If not now, when?” the president said to the group, according to the official.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who appeared to be speaking for the Republicans, argued that a grand bargain that includes new tax revenue would not pass the House, so they should fall back to the $2.5 trillion framework from the talks led by Vice President Joe Biden.
The meeting, which featured several sharp and frustrated exchanges, broke without settling much other than negotiators’ plans for their next meeting, according to multiple Republican and Democratic officials briefed on the session.
~ snipet ~
Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), took aim at Democrats’ desire to shelter entitlement programs.
“The members will meet again tomorrow, though it’s disappointing that the president is unable to bring his own party around to the entitlement reform that he put on the table,” Stewart said Sunday. “And it’s baffling that the president and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis while refusing to take significant action on spending reductions at a time of record deficits.”
Wild Thing’s comment………
Seventy five minutes? Heck it probably takes that long just to get them
all in the room and seated!
All my sympathy for anyone though having to be in the same room with obama and for 75 minutes…..AUGH!
“In a bid to take his case to voters, the president also will hold a press conference Monday morning…”
Can this IDIOT POTUS stay off my TV for any decent length of time?! I have never, EVER, seen a POTUS virtually on national TV every other day or as much as this damn IDIOT is….!!!
Is this the quickening of Boehner, i.e., he is actually growing a spine, or just an illusion, for show.
The debt is at 14+ Trillion, a few percentage points greater that our GDP. At the rate this is growing, the generation required to pay this off will be incaluable. It will be the first time in our history, our children were Not better off than we their parents.
What don’t they get. When you have too many people living off their neighbors, they have no Rights and an entitlement is not a right but an altruistic chain around their necks that will tie them to the whims of a government run amok.
I don’t trust Boehner. When all is said and done, I see him as just another negotiating pol, who will go along to get along.
We need to remember that he was not among the true Conservative Republicans, elected through the efforts of the Tea Party. He was in place before.
I will say this, however, I think that he realizes that if he does not listen to those newly elected reps, and toe the line on this, he will be replaced. They have enough votes to do so, and he knows it. The sad thing about that is, by that time it will be too late.
The fact that Cantor, “appeared to be speaking for the Republicans,” is not a good sign. Cantor was the one who led an earlier walkout, and although Boehner went along, he was not the major spokesman.
I will change my opinion of this man, only after these talks end, and he has not conceded on anything. Unfortunatly, I really don’t hold much hope that happening.
We may all be surprised, I hope. It may mean a backroom deal to allow Obama to stay a free man after leaveing office but if that is the cost of survival of the nation so be it.
God help us if Obama manages to peel off a few dozen RINOs it will mean war.
Mark, I sure hope it is a quickening of Boehner, I guess we will hav e to wait and see the final decision they make. It sure gets tiring to have to wonder if those we have elected will do what they know we want. We should not have to waste time worring about it and yet we do because of how we so many have been.
Sean, same here, I really hate this having to wonder at all if Boehner will get strong.
Avitar, I agree, God help us.