President Obama Reportedly Walks Out of Debt-Limit Meeting
Tensions are rising in ongoing debt-limit talks in Washington, as President Obama reportedly walked out of a contentious meeting earlier tonight. The clock is ticking, and the pressure is close a debt-limit deal is rising with each passing day. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has repeatedly declared that August 2nd is the deadline by which the nation's debt ceiling must be raised, or else.
What would happen if the country defaulted on its debt? Nobody really knows for sure, but the general consensus is that such an event could drive the nation (and the world, for that matter) into a recession worse than the one experienced from late 2007 until June of 2009.
The White House is also very likely at stake, as the next presidential election is less than 16 months away. Neither side wants to "lose" this battle with November, 2012 approaching quickly.
To add even more gasoline to the fire, Moody's warned earlier today that they are going to review the country's AAA bond rating because the White House and Congress haven't been able to agree on a deal as of yet.
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As mentioned, President Obama reportedly walked out of a debt-limit meeting earlier tonight. According to Politico.com, President Obama "abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit meeting" and declared "I'll see you tomorrow". Tensions in the "stormy" meeting escalated thanks to ongoing "sniping" between Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
The Republican side has stated that they will only vote for an increase to the nation's debt ceiling if a deficit-debt reduction plan has been agreed to first.
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It's almost inconceivable to imagine a scenario in which an agreement isn't reached by August 2nd, but with tensions seemingly boiling over, you just never know what will happen.
Source: Politico.com - President Obama Abruptly Walks Out of Talks
Filed under: General Knowledge
