President Barack Obama suspended U.S. budget negotiations for the day on Friday to give congressional leaders a chance to come up with a "plan of action" on how to unblock talks meant to cut deficits and avert a debt default.
Other political news of note
Obama, who had vowed to meet top lawmakers every day until a deal is reached to raise the U.S. debt limit, gave top Democrats and Republicans until Saturday morning to reconsider their positions in the high-stakes negotiations. He will hold a news conference on Friday at 11:00 a.m. EDT while awaiting feedback from meetings on Capitol Hill due to take place in the morning.
The debt negotiations may resume over the weekend.
"It's decision time. We need concrete plans to move this forward," Obama said on the fifth straight day of debt negotiations on Thursday, according to a Democratic official.
Financial markets are starting to worry that Republicans and Democrats are too far apart to reach a major budget agreement by Aug. 2, when the United States would run out of money unless the cap on government borrowing is raised.
Obama, who is running for re-election in November 2012, has rejected the idea of a stopgap or short-term agreement that would require the debt ceiling to be raised again next year.
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