Barack Obama, Federal Debt | featured news

Days after one high-stakes standoff over finances was resolved, the two sides are getting ready for another as Congress prepares to address the nation’s borrowing limit.

Flush with re-election vigor, President Barack Obama on Friday will provide his first public comments on the upcoming negotiations with Congress on how to deal with pending tax hikes and spending cuts that create the so-called fiscal cliff facing the economy at the end of the year.

Crossroads GPS, the sister organization to the super PAC American Crossroads, is launching a $7 million TV ad Tuesday blasting President Obama over the national debt, and accusing him of "growing our debt faster than our economy.

The Republican Party has a Web ad spotlighting the fact that the debt has grown more under President Obama in less than one term than it did under President George W. Bush in two terms. Since taking office on Jan. 20, 2009, the debt under Obama has increased by $4.93 trillion, according to Treasury Department figures.

House Speaker John Boehner says things have gotten a little "frosty" with President Obama in recent weeks, but he still hopes their parties can work together as Congress prepares to confront the federal debt problem. "The president and I have a pretty good relationship," Boehner said on ABC's This Week With Christiane Amanpour. "You know, it's been little frosty here the last few weeks. But we've got a pretty good relationship."

President Obama continued to push for a $4-trillion deal to rein in government deficits Sunday, but a White House meeting with congressional leaders failed to break the deadlock over spending and taxes that has stalemated discussions for more than a month.

President Barack Obama pressed his case on Saturday for achieving deficit reduction, in part by ending tax breaks and singling out hedge fund managers, oil companies and billionaires to take the hit.

Regardless of any tax concessions President Obama achieves, the end result would favor Republican goals of cutting spending and government services. Even as the political battle mounts over federal spending, the end result for federal policy is already visible — and clearly favors Republican goals of deep spending cuts and drastically fewer government services.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will meet Monday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to discuss "the status of the negotiations to find common ground on a balanced approach to deficit reduction," according to the White House.

It looks like the media is about to have some more fun with Vice President Joe Biden. It appears Biden nodded off during part of President Obama's debt reduction speech today, and had the misfortune of being caught on camera ...