Any plan that includes cuts hurting the nation’s poor and the middle class, but helping the nation’s most wealthy is unacceptable – we pray President Obama and congressional Democrats stick to that rule/value.

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama ruled out any possibility of signing a short-term extension of the federal debt ceiling Monday, insisting that the time has come to tackle the nation’s most pressing fiscal problems in a comprehensive way requiring bipartisan compromise on both taxes and spending.

The president continued to push for the largest deal possible — an apparent rejection of a proposal put forward over the weekend by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to focus more narrowly on spending cuts agreed to in an earlier round of negotiations.

It’s time to “pull off the Band-Aid” and “eat our peas,” Obama told reporters shortly before meeting with top congressional leaders at the White House. “Let’s step up. Let’s do it.”

“Now is the time to deal with these issues,” he declared. “If not now, when?”

While dismissing a possible 30-, 60-, or 90-day solution, the president insisted a deal to increase the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling will be reached before August 2. Treasury officials have warned that a partial default could be triggered if lawmakers fail to act by that date.

Such a failure could lead to skyrocketing interest rates and a plummeting dollar, among other things.

Obama, who promised daily meetings until a deal is reached, reiterated his warning against either party taking a “maximalist position” in the ongoing negotiations. The president insisted he is willing to take “significant heat” from his own party on issues such as entitlement reform in order to get a deal done.

Republican leaders should as well, he said, referencing GOP opposition to any tax hikes.

For his part, Boehner said he still has a sharp disagreement with the White House over taxes and the “extent of the entitlement problem, and what is necessary to solve it.”

“It takes two to tango, and they’re not there yet,” Boehner said in reference to the administration.

He repeated his insistence that the Republican-controlled House will not pass any debt ceiling deal that includes tax increases. He also stressed that the House won’t pass a deal that fails to include spending cuts larger than any debt ceiling increase while also constraining future spending.

Read full story: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/11/debt.talks/index.html