Obama: Short-term debt deal bad idea

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama prodded Congress Tuesday to reach a sweeping long-term deal within the next two weeks to raise the nation’s borrowing limit rather than “kick the can down the road” with a makeshift, short-term solution, and he declared it must include the tax hikes Republicans strongly oppose.

He said he was summoning leaders of both parties to the White House on Thursday to try to get it done and beat an Aug. 2 deadline to avert a first-ever federal default that could shake economic markets worldwide.

Obama said he opposed a stopgap, short-term in-crease, as suggested by some lawmakers. But he stopped short of ruling out a limited extension, and his spokesman Jay Carney later declined to say whether the president would veto such a measure.

Obama renewed his stand that any deal must include not only spending cuts but also new revenue — tax increases vehemently ruled out by many Republicans. in Congress.

“We need to come together over the next two weeks to reach a deal that reduces the deficit and upholds the full faith and credit of the United States government and the credit of the American people,” Obama said at the White House.

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