According to the White House, President Obama is willing to accept a short term debt deal, but only if lawmakers are willing to provide and work on a grand deal for the long term as there are 12 days left before the debt ceiling deadline on August 2. This is a significant change for Obama as he previously stated he would veto a short term deal. Regardless, it still looks like a deal is far from being reached.
Mr Obama's spokesman Jay Carney said: 'There is still time to do something significant if all parties are willing to compromise.'
The question for the President now is what will it take to get enough votes from both parties to muscle legislation through the House and Senate and raise the national debt limit by the August 2 deadline.
Mr Obama met with the top two Democrats from both the House and Senate, and then had talks with House Speaker John Boehner and his deputy, Eric Cantor.
The Obama administration and Congress are also working on a backup plan to increase the debt limit if no big plan can be reached.
It would allow Obama to raise the ceiling on his own unless overridden by Congress.
For more on this, see Guy Benson's post from yesterday.
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