President Barack Obama makes a statement to the media in the James S. Brady Briefing Room following the meeting with the Congressional Leadership to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to deficit reduction, July 7, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Today, President Obama held a meeting with Congressional leaders to discuss the ongoing efforts to find a balanced approach to reduce our deficit. Following the meeting, the President stopped by the press briefing to give a statement on the negotiations:
I just completed a meeting with all the congressional leaders from both chambers, from both parties, and I have to say that I thought it was a very constructive meeting. People were frank. We discussed the various options available to us. Everybody reconfirmed the importance of completing our work and raising the debt limit ceiling so that the full faith and credit of the United States of America is not impaired.
What we decided was that staffs, as well as leadership, will be working during the weekend, and that I will reconvene congressional leaders here on Sunday with the expectation that, at that point, the parties will at least know where each other’s bottom lines are and will hopefully be in a position to then start engaging in the hard bargaining that’s necessary to get a deal done.
Fonte: White House