Obama urges Congress to reach consensus on deficit

[November 14, 2011]  KAPOLEI, Hawaii (AP) -- President Barack Obama is urging Congress to reach consensus on a plan to slash the nation's deficit, saying lawmakers are continuing to stick with "rigid positions" rather than solving the problem.

A committee in charge of cutting the deficit has until Nov. 23 to agree on how to reduce it by at least $1.2 trillion in the next decade.

Any amount less than that would be made up in automatic across-the-board cuts divided evenly between defense and domestic programs.

Obama says at a news conference in Hawaii that he hopes lawmakers will "bite the bullet and do what needs to be done."

He says it appears members of Congress "want to keep jiggering the math" to get a different outcome.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.