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    July 23, 2011

Obama Set to Meet Congressional Leaders After Debt Talks Collapse

   VOA News
   US President Barack Obama makes a statement in the Brady Briefing Room
   at the White House in Washington, July 22, 2011 on the break down of
   debt ceiling talks.
   Photo: AP
   US President Barack Obama makes a statement in the Brady Briefing Room
   at the White House in Washington, July 22, 2011 on the break down of
   debt ceiling talks.

   U.S. President Barack Obama is set to meet with congressional leaders
   of both parties Saturday after a top Republican broke off negotiations
   on raising the country's borrowing limit.
   Obama said he was offering what he called "an extraordinarily fair
   deal." The president said Friday it is "hard to understand" why House
   Speaker John Boehner would "walk away from this kind of deal."
   Ahead of his White House meeting, Obama said during his Saturday weekly
   address that both sides must compromise or they will never get anything
   done. The president says he wants the lawmakers to explain to him how
   the country will avoid defaulting on its payments after the government
   runs out of money on August 2.
   Obama says he had proposed significant cuts in discretionary spending
   and from social welfare programs. He said he also had proposed
   increasing tax revenue by a lower amount than had been agreed to by a
   bipartisan group of senators.
   ^Watch President Obama's weekly address:

   IFRAME: [1]http://www.youtube.com/embed/1IBTGcehElI

   Speaker Boehner said President Obama's proposal had demanded an
   unacceptable increase in tax revenue that would require raising taxes
   on the people needed to invest in the economy and create jobs. Boehner
   said he remains confident the U.S. can avoid defaulting on its
   payments.
   Obama said he is willing to go along with a back-up plan proposed by
   the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, that would give
   Obama the power to raise the debt limit while allowing Republicans to
   vote against the increase. He said this would accomplish the minimum
   necessary of allowing the U.S. to keep paying its bills. But he said he
   preferred to also work on solving the problem of the enormous U.S. debt
   and deficit.
   In the Republican Party's weekly address Saturday, Representative Jeb
   Hensarling of Texas said if the country is going to avoid default,
   President Obama and his allies need to work with Republicans to "cut up
   the credit cards once and for all."
   ^Watch Republican weekly address:
   The U.S. Treasury Department, the central bank (Federal Reserve) and
   the White House have all warned a default would have catastrophic
   consequences for the economy. Economists have also said default would
   have a very negative effect on the global economy.

References

   1. http://www.youtube.com/embed/1IBTGcehElI

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