Cry baby.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner abruptly broke off talks with President Barack Obama Friday night on a deal to make major cuts in federal spending and avert a threatened government default, sending already uncertain compromise efforts into instant crisis.
Within minutes, an obviously peeved Obama virtually ordered congressional leaders to the White House Saturday morning for fresh negotiations on raising the nation’s debt limit. “We’ve got to get it done. It is not an option not to do it,” he declared.
For the first time since talks began, he declined to offer assurances, when asked, that default would be avoided. Moments later, however, he said he was confident of that outcome.
At a rebuttal news conference of his own a short while later in the Capitol, Boehner said, “I want to be entirely clear, no one wants default on the full faith and credit of the United States government, and I’m convinced that we will not.”
The two men offered sharply different accounts of the compromise efforts so far and who was at fault for the collapse.
“I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” Obama said wryly.