ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
And I'm Michele Norris.
The debt ceiling talks have collapsed. House Speaker John Boehner pulled out of a deal that would raise the debt ceiling exchange for trillions of dollars in deficit cuts and revenue increases. President Obama and Speaker Boehner each held a last minute news conference this evening.
NPR's Ari Shapiro joins us to discuss where this leaves the talks now. Ari, what happened?
Well, as you know, Michele, President Obama and his aides have been working with congressional leaders and their aides for weeks now on a grand deal that would've cut the deficit by trillions of dollars over a decade. It would've been made up what President Obama says was about three-to-one spending cuts to revenue increases.
And, you know, as of this morning, the sticking point seemed to be Democrats who might not go along with the deal because of the depth of the cuts. President Obama says this afternoon, his phone calls to Speaker Boehner were not returned. When Speaker Boehner eventually called back, it was to say that the talks were dead, the big deal was off the table.
NORRIS: And the president said he'd been left at the altar a couple of times now. How would you describe the tone of that press conference?
SHAPIRO: You know, President Obama is this perpetually cool guy. I don't think I have ever seen him as fuming as he was in this news conference. He said the deal that he and the speaker had in the works was more generous to Republicans in terms of the balance of revenue and tax increases than the deal that the bipartisan Gang of Six in the Senate was talking about. And he just seemed incredulous that the Republicans would walk away from it. Here's what he said.
President BARACK OBAMA: It is hard to understand why Speaker Boehner would walk away from this kind of deal. And, frankly, if you look at the commentary out there, there are a lot of Republicans that are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done. In fact, there are a lot of Republican voters out there who are puzzled as to why it couldn't get done.
NORRIS: Now, it's interesting, John Boehner held his press conference and he said it was the president who walked away by asking for more money. Why did this happen?
SHAPIRO: Well, it all came down to tax increases. The problem at the end was the same as the problem at the beginning. According to Speaker Boehner, the president had a number a revenue amount that they had agreed on between Congress and the White House - and Boehner says the president increased that number at the last minute.
During his news conference, he said, he stepped away from the tree to spend the morning looking at the forest. Here's what he said.
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican): I spent most of the morning and afternoon consulting with my fellow leaders, members of our conference and others about the way to go forward. And I just want to tell you what I said several weeks ago. Dealing with the White House is like dealing with a bowl of Jell-o.
SHAPIRO: I think that statement that he spent the morning talking to members is important because Boehner is an old school Republican who has been a deal-maker for years and years and years. But to get this through the House, he has to get the approval of at least some of these freshman Tea Party-backed Republicans, many of whom are simply not willing to budge on the issue of tax revenues. And it does House Speaker no good to agree to a deal that he doesn't have the other Republicans in the House supporting.
NORRIS: So, Ari, what happens now?
SHAPIRO: Well, the president says there is no more time. Despite all of this back and forth, and back and forth, the deadline to raise the debt ceiling has not moved it remains August 2nd.
So, tomorrow morning, 11:00 AM, the congressional leaders are all going to come back to the White House. President Obama says that is the moment to say, how are we going to solve this? He says it has to be long-term, they can't just kick the can six months down the road.
At the same time, House Speaker Boehner says the White House is not going to be any help on this. So, while he's going to go to the meeting, he says members of Congress are going to have to figure out a path forward. All the leaders say that they don't want the country to go into default, but I don't think anybody believes it is a coincidence that these announcements came after the markets closed.
NORRIS: We've got to wrap this up but we've been talking about an August 2nd deadline. There's really an earlier deadline. At what point do they have to work something out?
SHAPIRO: Depends how long it takes a bill through Congress. But you're right, it takes days, not hours, to get one of these bills past the House and Senate to the president's desk.
NORRIS: That's NPR's Ari Shapiro. Ari, thank you very much.
SHAPIRO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.