WASHINGTON (AFP) ? US President Barack Obama on Saturday again urged Democrats and Republicans to quickly reach a compromise on raising the nation's debt ceiling, saying there were significant areas of agreement on how to do it.
"Look, the parties are not that far apart here," Obama said in his weekly Internet and radio address.
"We?re in rough agreement on how much spending we need to cut to reduce our deficit," he pointed out. "We agree on a process to tackle tax reform and entitlement reform. There are plenty of ways out of this mess. But there is very little time."
The comments came after the Republican-held House of Representatives late Friday passed Republican Speaker John Boehner's bill to avert a default, but within two hours it had been rejected by 59-41 votes in the Democratic-led Senate.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would now help work out a final deal the outlines of which were far from clear with the clock ticking down.
But there was no promise of cooperation on this initiative from the Republican side.
Obama said that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan.
"It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people -- not just one faction of one party," he said.
"There are multiple ways to resolve this problem. Congress must find common ground on a plan that can get support from both parties in the House. And it?s got to be a plan that I can sign by Tuesday."
The US economy hit its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling on May 16 and has used spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-than-expected tax receipts, to continue operating normally -- but can only do so through Tuesday.
Business and finance leaders have warned that default would send crippling aftershocks through the fragile US economy, still wrestling with stubbornly high unemployment in the wake of the 2008 global meltdown.
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