Obama Increases Pressure on Republicans on Debt

By REUTERS
Published: July 10, 2011
Updated: July 11, 2011 at 4:36 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday increased pressure on Republican lawmakers to make concessions for a deal to avoid an August 2 debt default and said both sides must "pull off the Band-aid" and make sacrifices.

"If not now, when?" Obama said.

The president met for 90 minutes with top U.S. lawmakers for a second-straight day in the search for a way to break a budget impasse that is holding up a vote on raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, which caps how much money Washington can borrow.

"The things that I will not consider are a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day or a 180-day temporary stopgap resolution to this problem. This is the United States of America, and we don't manage our affairs in three-month increments," Obama said.


Obama Increases Pressure on Republicans on Debt