President Obama held a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Monday to address the status of deficit-reduction talks and urge Congress to pursue the largest deal possible.
“It is possible for us to construct a package that would be balanced, share sacrifice, [and] would involve both parties taking on their sacred cows,” he said from Washington, D.C.
The Obama administration is pushing for a $4 trillion proposal, but Republicans have countered by refusing to discuss tax increases for the wealthy and alleging that a deal that includes $2 trillion in savings is more politically viable.
“I’ve been hearing from my Republican friends for some time it is a moral imperative to tackle our debt and deficits in a serious way,” Obama added. “What I’ve said to them is, let’s go.”
Obama declared during Monday’s presser that he will not accept an insufficient short-term deal that does not involve taxes.
“We might as well do it now,” he said. “Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas. We don’t manage our affairs in three-month increments.”
With the catastrophic ramifications of a default crisis on the horizon, Congressional Democrats and Republicans agree that the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling should be raised before the August 2 deadline.