President Obama told congressional leaders that a debt deal needs to be done by Friday. Obama demands 'concrete' progress

President Barack Obama told congressional leaders at a White House meeting Thursday that the framework for a deal must be in place in the next 36 hours or lawmakers will have to return to the negotiating table this weekend.

“It’s decision time,” said Obama during the meeting, according to a Democratic official familiar with the talks. “We need concrete plans to move this forward.”


Obama will hold a press conference at the White House at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter.

After a now-infamous session that ended in a blow-up Wednesday, both Democratic and Republican sources described the Thursday talks as cordial.

The alternate approach proposed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cedes power to the president and allows Republicans to vote against raising the debt ceiling got little attention at the meeting, though Obama appreciates the effort and considers it a “fallback option,” the Democratic official said.

Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told reporters Obama wants to see a contingency plan in place if no deal is reached Friday.

“The president has expressed to the group that by Friday we have to get something done,” Durbin said Thursday. “And it’s realistic because if we’re going to extend the debt ceiling, it takes some time to not only write the bill but to have it scored and move forward.”

Asked if that meant that Congress must move to another option if a deal isn’t reached on Friday, Durbin said: “We will have no choice at that point but to turn to some other option.”

At the meeting Thursday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the debt ceiling must be raised and long-term debt must also be considered, an issue pressed by House Majority Leader John Boehner.

Eight congressional leaders trying to negotiate a deal of budget cuts along with a plan to raise the national debt ceiling, which currently stands at $14.3 trillion. Already, Senate Democrats and Republicans are weighing contingency plans, including one by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to establish an unusual process where Obama would get a debt limit increase once Congress votes on a resolution to disapprove the move and the president vetoes the resolution.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is in talks with McConnell about the plan, which may eventually include a commission that will recommend budget cuts that must be voted on by Congress as well as some up-front cuts to next year’s budget. As it currently stands, the McConnell plan only calls on Obama to propose budget cuts.

“Harry Reid has been banging a calendar on the table every day telling us we’re running out of time,” Durbin said. “He knows this clock and calendar better than any leader.”

“We have to be able to move legislation forward very quickly to have it done in time for the Aug. 2 deadline.”

Reid’s proposed commission, or select committee, would be comprised of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans and have equal representation from the House and Senate.

Senate Republicans are pushing to hold a vote on a balanced budget amendment next week, and any agreement between McConnell and Reid could be brought to the floor after that if White House debt talks remain stalled.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican Conference chairman, said Reid’s proposal has “some real promise,” especially since it would allow Congress to cut spending before 2012.

“It avoids default and creates a mechanism for dealing with our spending crisis, and I think having that fallback position is healthy for this whole discussion,” Alexander told POLITICO.

“I thought [McConnell’s] fallback position was a good idea in the first place. Combining it with Sen. Reid’s idea actually improves McConnell’s position, so I support it.”

—Matt Negrin and Scott Wong contributed to this report.