Obama: Congress will compromise, raise debt limit (AP)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says he absolutely will not let Republicans use a debt ceiling crisis to extract deeper federal spending cuts. Congressional Republicans of all stripes say Obama has no choice but to accept the spending cuts they want in exchange for a hike in the national debt limit. The two sides might reach a mutual agreement before the matter becomes a crisis in March, or possibly late February.

I am pleased to report the debt-limit charade is progressing in order, right on cue, perhaps slightly ahead of schedule. In Trillion Dollar Coin Idea Dies Sudden Death; Treasury, Fed Oppose Using Platinum Coin; Republican Strategy I proposed this seven-stage sequence of events. Politics of the Debate

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders on Sunday showed no signs of emerging from their corners to resolve the next step in the financial crisis, with Democrats still talking about higher taxes on the wealthy and the Senate’s top Republican suggesting that a crippling default on U.S. loans was possible unless there were significant cuts in government spending.

Club for Growth, a conservatives grassroots organization feared by most Republicans, has given the GOP the green light to vote for the House debt ceiling bill Wednesday. 

The U.S. Congress advanced by inches on Tuesday toward compromise on taxes and spending, but a firm deal to avert the “fiscal cliff” at the end of the year still seemed miles away, despite growing pressure from business interests for action. President Barack Obama was set to hold meetings with business leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday and then travel to a factory in Pennsylvania on Friday to press his case on taxes.

President Barack Obama used his weekly address as a first step in the discussion over the raising of the debt ceiling, warning that he "will not compromise" on the issue.

Past its own New Year’s deadline, a weary Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation to avoid a national “fiscal cliff” of middle class tax increases and spending cuts late Tuesday night in the culmination of a struggle that strained America’s divided government to the limit. The bill’s passage on a bipartisan 257-167 vote in the House sealed a hard-won political triumph for the president less than two months after he secured re-election while calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.