President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Nov. 21, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This afternoon, the group of lawmakers tasked with cutting an additional $1 trillion from the deficit announced that their effort had failed.
President Obama addressed that situation from the White House Briefing Room just before 6:00 PM ET.
While some members of Congress are talking about undoing the automatic spending cuts that will take effect in 2013 if lawmakers can't reach a compromise, the President said that kind of backpeddling is unacceptable:
I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.
There is still plenty of time for Congress to act, and there are a range of issues that demand their immediate attention.
That starts with the payroll tax cut. Without a vote from Congress, taxes for nearly every American will go up on January 1st.
"I'm not about to let that happen," President Obama said.
Fonte: White House