Obama calls lawmakers to White House in effort to break debt stalemate

President Obama will summon lawmakers to the White House this week in an effort to break a stalemate over how to rein in the soaring national debt.

In an announcement Tuesday afternoon, Obama called on Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to each send two representatives to the newly-constituted talks, which are aimed at slicing more than $2 trillion off the federal budget by 2021.

The announcement, which marks Obama’s first formal participation in the talks, comes with just over two weeks remaining until the White House deadline for an agreement.

Some lawmakers in recent days have suggested that Congress may pursue a short-term increase in the country’s $14.3 trillion debt limit in the event that negotiators and the White House do not work out a deal, an option that Obama dismissed on Tuesday.

“There are reports that there may be some in Congress who want to do just enough to make sure that America avoids defaulting on our debt in the short term but then wants to kick the can down the road when it comes to solving the larger problem of our deficit,” Obama said. “I don’t share that view. I don’t think the American people sent us here to avoid tough problems. It’s, in fact, what drives them nuts about Washington.”

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