Obama to GOP: Don’t Let U.S. Default Before the Holidays

Another day, another round of debt ceiling negotiations. As the government shutdown slogged into its 12 day, President Obama urged Republican lawmakers to extent the country’s debt limit for longer than the six weeks they’ve already proposed. “It wouldn’t be wise, as some suggest, to kick the debt ceiling can down the road for a couple months, and flirt with a first-ever intentional default right in the middle of the holiday shopping season,” Obama said in his weekly address Saturday. House Republicans, who are being blamed by the president and, according to polls, by a majority of Americans, for causing the government shutdown, will meet re-evaluate their options for a debt ceiling agreement at the Capitol on Saturday.