He also pressed back against the idea that he and fellow Democrats are insisting the budget be passed exactly as they want it.
The budget that was passed by the Democrats in the Senate was the Republican budget. It actually has the budget levels that the Republicans themselves asked for, he said. So it doesnt reflect what Democrats want. Democrats have a budget thats $70 billion higher than the Republican budget. Weve passed the Republican budget, the only thing weve said is, you cant tack on top of that repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
He admitted that he cannot guarantee at this point that Social Security beneficiaries and others wont see their checks stop if the government defaults, saying that Republican threats to potentially not raise the debt ceiling are unacceptable.
If [a bill to raise the debt ceiling] is not passed, then you have serious questions as to whether the federal government can make payments to senior citizens, to small business people who are owed money by the federal government. And this is why we should not even be having this discussion, he said. This should be off the table.
Obama flips the debate: What if I were hurting people just to get my way? ? MSNBC
It's about damn time he started returned fire.