Obama Implores Lawmakers to 'Seize the Moment' on Debt Talks

With the debt-ceiling deadline now less than two weeks away, President Obama turned up the heat on Republicans today, saying that 80 percent of Americans support a "balanced approach" that includes increased taxes and spending cuts. He also reminded politicians that "constantly being locked into ideologically rigid positions" would come back to haunt them at the polls. But House Speaker John Boehner insisted that the GOP had offered "serious cuts," and called on the President to "put forward a plan, not a speech." Ron Brownstein is political director of Atlantic Media.