Can the United States Avoid a Default?

Last week, President Obama reportedly walked out of debt-limit talks after getting into multiple back-and-forth exchanges with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Earlier today, the talks broke down once again as House Speaker John Boehner walked away from negotiations after "complaining that Mr. Obama would not agree to Republican demands that the deal not include any tax increases."

President Obama appeared before reporters a short time later, claiming that Boehner had chosen to walk away from what Obama called "an extraordinarily fair deal."

According to Obama, the deal on the table included:

-$1 trillion to cuts in domestic and defense discretionary spending
-$650 million in cuts to entitlement programs
-$1.2 trillion in revenue increases

According to President Obama, the revenue increases would have come from "eliminating loopholes and deductions".

Obama had a few more choice quotes during his meeting with reporters:

"It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal and frankly, if you look at the commentary out there, there are a lot of Republicans that are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done."

"What this came down to is there doesn't seem to be a capacity for them to say yes."

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Boehner released a statement a short time later. Here are some of the lines that jumped out at me:

"During these discussions - as in my earlier discussions - it became evident that the White House is simply not serious about ending the spending binge that is destroying jobs and endangering our children's future."

"In the end, we couldn't connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country."

"The president is emphatic that taxes have to be raised. As a former small businessman, I know tax increases destroy jobs."

"..I have decided to end discussions with the White House and begin conversations with the leaders of the Senate in an effort to find a path forward."

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President Obama said that he was going to be calling Congressional leaders to the White House Saturday morning "to explain how we are going to avoid default."

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The clock is ticking - will the United States be able to avoid a default? The next 10 days are going to be very interesting..

Source: CBSNews.com - Debt Talks Break Down; "We Have Run Out of Time"

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