Obama, Biden look to break debt impasse

President Obama and Vice President Biden will meet with Senate leaders to discuss negotiations on raising the debt limit, the White House announced Friday. 

The meetings on Monday are intended to “to find common ground on a balanced approach to deficit reduction,” the White House said.

{mosads}Obama and Biden will meet with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in the morning and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the evening.

The announcement on Friday came shortly after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a statement saying he would not sign off on any deal to increase the debt limit that did not include spending cuts larger than the debt limit, budget reforms, and an increase in taxes. 

“With Republicans threatening to give up amidst internal divisions, Sen. Reid is prepared to step in and make sure we stay focused on creating jobs and cutting the deficit,” Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said in a statement.

On Friday, White House press Secretary Jay Carney said Obama was confident that a deal would eventually be reached.

“We believe that we can move forward as long as no one in the talks takes a my-way-or-the-highway approach,” Carney said.

Despite the appearance of an impasse, Carney said the White House remains “confident that we can continue the progress that we’ve made and that there’s reason to believe that we’ll be able to find common ground to achieve significant deficit reduction.”

“Because the American people insist that we get it done,” Carney said.

The White House announcement came a day after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) announced that he would not continue to participate in debt-ceiling negotiations led by Biden. 

Reid said that the departure of Cantor and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) from the negotiations meant that finishing the deal was now up to the leaders of Congress and the president.

“I think that now with what Kyl and Cantor have done, it’s in the hands of the Speaker and the president and sadly, probably me,” Reid said on Thursday. 

The White House’s announcement made no mention of whether Obama would be meeting with Boehner soon. 

—This story was updated at 3:15 p.m.