President Obama on debt deal: ‘We are obviously running out of time’

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the media during a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July15, 2011. Obama, the Democratic controlled Senate and the Republican controlled House continue to battle over the debt ceiling, budget cuts and tax hikes as an August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit or face default looms. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg

President Obama held a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on Friday, during which he acknowledged that federal lawmakers are running out of time to strike a deal and cited polls that show the American people favor a balanced approach to deficit-reduction talks.

“My Republican friends have said that they’re not willing to do revenues, and they have repeated that on several occasions. My hope, though, is that they’re listening not just to lobbyists or special interests here in Washington, but they’re also listening to the American people,” he said.

“Because it turns out, poll after poll, many done by your organizations, show that it’s not just Democrats who think we need to take a balanced approach, it’s Republicans as well. The clear majority of Republican voters think that any deficit-reduction package should have a balanced approach and should include some revenues.”

A Gallup poll released earlier this week found that most Americans favor a plan that includes a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Many Congressional Republicans oppose any proposal that contains tax hikes, but just 20 percent of Americans support a deal that only includes spending cuts.

Stressing the importance of shared sacrifice and stabilizing America’s finances for the foreseeable future, Obama has asked lawmakers to develop a plan within the next 24 to 36 hours.

The president added that any $2 billion proposal “not asking anything from the wealthiest among us or from closing corporate loopholes – that doesn’t seem like a serious plan to me.”

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