President Barack Obama says there are multiple ways to resolve the debt ceiling mess, but it has to be bipartisan and it has to happen fast.
The president urged Democrats and Republicans in the Senate Friday to come together on a plan that can pass the House and that he can sign.
"What's clear now is that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan. It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people—not just one faction," President Obama said. "And there are multiple ways to resolve this problem. Senator Reid, a Democrat, has introduced a plan in the Senate that contains cuts agreed upon by both parties. Senator McConnell, a Republican, offered a solution that could get us through this. There are plenty of modifications we can make to either of these plans in order to get them passed through both the House and the Senate and would allow me to sign them into law."
He spoke at the White House as a bill by Republican House Speaker John Boehner to lift the debt ceiling and slash spending remained unexpectedly stalled after Boehner failed to muster the necessary votes. Obama said, "We're almost out of time." The deadline for raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default is Aug. 2.
"If we don't come to an agreement, we could lose our country's triple-A credit rating, not because we didn't have the capacity to pay our bills—we do—but because we didn't have a triple-A political system to match our triple-A credit rating," he said.
Republicans were set to try again Friday and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced plans to move forward on a rival measure ahead of the Tuesday deadline to act or face unprecedented default.
President Obama asked the American public to continue to weigh in on the negotiations. "If you want to see a bipartisan compromise...let your members of Congress know," he said. "Make a phone call. Send an email. Tweet. Keep the pressure on Washington, and we can get past this."
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