House Speaker John Boehner called President Obama Friday to inform him that he is pulling out of talks with him on raising the nation's legal limit to borrow money to avert a government default.Boehner sent a letter to lawmakers saying, "we couldn't connect."
Obama said in a hasty appearance at the White House briefing room that "it's hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this deal."
"This was an extraordinarily fair deal," he said, explaining that the White House offered $1 trillion in spending cuts and $650 billion in changes to entitlement programs in exchange for $1.2 trillion in new revenues.
Boehner will now work with Senate leaders on an alternative "to find a path forward," he wrote in the letter to lawmakers. But Obama said he wants to see congressional leaders at the White House Saturday to figure out how to avoid a government default.
"We have now run out of time," Obama said.
According to a GOP leadership aide close to the talks, the sides were moving forward toward a total package that would cut $3 trillion to 3.5 trillion over a decade. It would have included an incremental increase in the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling now and force another one late next winter.
But the aide said a disagreement over revenues "blew this up."
Sorry Bambi, but 1 trillion in cuts traded for 1.2 trillion in new taxes is NOT a good deal. Boehner was right not to take this. It is a progressive wet dream and not a real deal.