Obama, Boehner in showdown as debt ceiling talks go down to the wire

The latest on the White House-Congressional debt limit talks

House Speaker John Boehner was overheard Monday saying he didn’t sign up to “go mano a mano with the president of the United States.” Well, you can’t always get what you want.

President Obama and Boehner held dueling primetime press conferences Monday, each arguing for their version of raising the debt ceiling and bringing the nation’s budget closer to balance. But the two men are on such different pages, it’s not clear they’re even reading the same book.

Obama, in his primetime talk, said no to a temporary debt hike, because that would just allow Republicans to renew the hostage situation six months from now.

Boehner still talked about cutting, capping and balancing.

Are we any closer to a resolution?

Seems not.

Politico writes up the two-fer.

And here’s the president’s clip (plus text from the White House):

And here’s John Boehner’s:

Related: Obama calls on people to contact their Congressman — congressional servers crash.

And Matt Stoller examines the GOP’s alternate universe.

Oh, and this. What if the government does default? It’s really, really, not pretty.