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You are here: Home / Politics / National / Obama Walks Out During Debt Talks

Obama Walks Out During Debt Talks

July 13, 2011 by Daniel

Politico

President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a stormy debt-limit  meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, a dramatic setback to the already shaky negotiations.

“He shoved back and said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters in  the Capitol after the meeting.

On a day when the Moody’s rating agency warned that American  debt could be downgraded, the White House talks blew up amid a new round of  sniping between Obama and Cantor, who are fast becoming bitter enemies.

When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could  pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would  consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would  take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald  Reagan, the president said — would sit through such negotiations.

Democratic sources dispute Cantor’s version of Obama’s walk out, but all  sides agree that the two had a blow up. The sources described Obama as “impassioned” but said he didn’t exactly storm out of the room.

“Cantor’s account of tonight’s meeting is completely overblown. For someone  who knows how to walk out of a meeting, you’d think he’d know it when he saw  it,” a Democratic aide said. “Cantor rudely interrupted the president three  times to advocate for short-term debt ceiling increases while the president was  wrapping the meeting. This is just more juvenile behavior from him and Boehner  needs to rein him in, and let the grown-ups get to work.”

On exiting the room, Obama said that “this confirms the totality of what the  American people already believe” about Washington, according to a Democratic  official familiar with the negotiations, and that officials are “too focused on  positioning and political posturing” to make difficult choices.

Filed Under: National, Politics

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