White House: 'Congress should be responsible and do its job' - The Hill

After a tense 50-minute meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Saturday, President Obama blasted lawmakers for “reckless political games” and reasserted his refusal to sign a temporary measure to raise the debt ceiling.

In a statement from White House press secretary Jay Carney, the White House said that Obama refused again to sign a shot-term deal, saying it “would be irresponsible to put our country at risk again in just a few short months with another battle over raising the debt ceiling.”

“Congress should refrain from playing reckless political games with our economy,” Carney said. “Instead, it should be responsible and do its job, avoiding default and cutting the deficit.”

According to the statement, the lawmakers agreed to “return to Capitol Hill to talk to their members and discuss a way forward, and conversations will continue throughout the day.”

(…)

“The President wanted to know that there was a plan for preventing national default,” McConnell said in a statement released after the meeting. “The bipartisan leadership in Congress is committed to working on new legislation that will prevent default while substantially reducing Washington spending.”

Boehner, who announced Friday evening that he was breaking off talks with the White House, issued a statement that didn’t even mention the president or the administration.

“As I said last night, over this weekend Congress will forge a responsible path forward,” the Speaker said in a statement. “House and Senate leaders will be working to find a bipartisan solution to significantly reduce Washington spending and preserve the full faith and credit of the United States.”

Emphasis mine. It’s looking more and more like Boehner knows the eventual deal, if one is struck, will not be something that he can brag about to his constituents. Boehner is obviously going out of his way not to mention the President, attempting to marginalize Obama’s role so the “reasonable,” “rational” tag that some have placed on the President won’t stick in some quarters.

This is something I must have picked up from Lawrence O’Donnell, whose analysis on the debt ceiling crisis and the President’s strategy has been eyeopening and seemingly spot on.