President Barack Obama walked out of debt limit negotiations Wednesday.
One Republican aide said the president quickly ended what was described as a “tense” meeting with congressional leaders about a deal to raise the debt ceiling.
Wednesday’s meeting came to a quick halt when Speaker of the House John Boehner responded negatively to spending cuts offered by the White House and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor offered to support two separate debt ceiling votes.
One GOP aide familiar with the talks told The Daily Caller that Wednesday’s meeting was the “most tense meeting of the week.”
“The Speaker challenged the President to offer real spending cuts,” said the aide. “He said the gimmicks and accounting tricks that Washington has used for decades are not applicable here. When White House officials attempted to justify budgetary gimmicks, the speaker said pointedly, ‘We’re not doing that anymore.'”
Cantor told reporters after the meeting that all progress in the negotiations had been erased. (Budget deal turns into P.R. duel)
The meeting was the fourth consecutive one of its kind. Republicans and Democrats have been struggling for weeks to find common ground. In recent days, an agreement has appeared to become increasingly unlikely.
Obama also told lawmakers today that the group has until Friday to figure out a deal.