Boehner Works on Sunday Debt Ceiling Agreement

During his latest public attack on the House Republicans, President Obama said during his press conference Friday afternoon that he had "summoned" the House and Senate leaders to the White House for a meeting Saturday at 11:00 AM.

"They are going to have to explain to me how we do not default", President Obama said.

Got that? Instead of stepping up and doing his job, President Obama wants to continue on as Bystander-in-Chief and insist on continuing to lay everything at the feet of Congress.

So, turns out the meeting didn't last very long at all:

Saturday's meeting, according to White House officials, lasted for 50 minutes.

"The President wanted to know that there was a plan for preventing national default," McConnell said in a statement released after the meeting broke up. "The bipartisan leadership in Congress is committed to working on new legislation that will prevent default while substantially reducing Washington spending."

In other words, nothing was accomplished.

By late Saturday, Speaker Boehner sounded resolved to a short term extension as the path forward in the immediate future:

The office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said late Saturday that Congress will have to resort to a two-vote approach to raise the debt-ceiling and prevent a government default.

"The Democrats who run Washington have refused to offer a plan," Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in a statement. "Now, as a result, a two-step process is inevitable."

Obama remains firm in insisting that only a big solution is acceptable.

Late Saturday, Boehner convened the Congressional leaders without any representatives from the White House. Very unusual for that to happen on The Hill.

By Sunday morning talk show time, as Treasury Secretary Geithner continued the White House attack on Republicans in Congress, Speaker Boehner took the high road. He said he wouldn't take part in the "political sniping" when asked to defend the GOP against Geithner's remarks.

Boehner remains confident he can put a proposal together in time for the opening of the overseas markets - late Sunday night for us in the U.S. - so as to keep the stock markets stable, both here and around the world. Though he said he prefers a bi-partisan agreement, he said the House Republicans are prepared to go it alone in a proposal.