Obama chats with Boehner by phone for three minutes before flying to Philly

One day after vowing to hold a meeting with top congressional leaders every day until a spending deal was reached to avert government shutdown, President Obama spent three minutes on the phone with Republican House Speaker John Boehner before flying to Philadelphia for a “winning the future” town hall.

Boehner “reiterated that the House’s goal is to prevent a government shutdown and make real cuts in spending, which the speaker has argued is necessary to support private-sector job creation and boost confidence in the nation’s economy,” Michael Steel, his spokesman said, “The discussion lasted approximately three minutes.”

Wednesday in a press conference Obama vowed that if a deal was not struck, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House … And if that doesn’t work, we’ll invite them again the day after that. And I will have my entire team available to work through the details of getting a deal done.”

But Obama is scheduled to speak at a “clean energy” town hall in Pennsylvania, a presidential swing state, at 2:10 p.m. He arrived at Andrews Air Force base at 12:35pm via helicopter for his flight to Philadelphia, according to a White House pool report.

Afterward, Obama is flying to New York City for an event with Rev. Al Sharpton. He is returning to D.C. at 8:50 p.m., according to his schedule.