'Get it done,' Obama challenges GOP on debt talks

yahoo

IMF urges US lawmakers to raise $14.3B debt limit

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a blunt challenge to Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that elimination of selected tax breaks for oil companies and the super-wealthy must be included in any deficit reduction plan.

"You stay here. Let's get it done," he all-but-lectured lawmakers, holding open the possibility of keeping Congress in Washington unless there is significant progress by week's end on a deal to cut deficits, raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit and avert a threatened financial crisis.

He said a plan must be in place by Aug. 2, a date he called "a hard deadline."

At his first White House news conference in three months, lasting a little over an hour, Obama also called on Congress to renew a payroll tax cut that took effect on Jan 1, one of several steps he said lawmakers can take quickly to help reduce 9.1 percent unemployment.