The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
June 30, 2011

President Obama Pushes To Raise National Debt Ceiling 
------------------------------------------------------



President Obama pressured Republicans Wednesday to increase the nation's
debt ceiling, which caps how much the United States can borrow. The
Standard and Poor's rating agency recently said it would immediately cut
the United States' top-notch credit rating if it missed a $30 billion
debt payment on August 4. President Obama addressed the issue at his
first formal news conference in more than three months.

President Barack Obama: "I want everybody to understand that this is a
jobs issue, this is not an abstraction. If the United States government
for the first time cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the
consequences for the U.S. economy will be significant and unpredictable
and that is not a good thing."



.