US PRESIDENT Barack Obama ratcheted up the pressure on Republicans in tense budget talks, saying the time had come for them to match their rhetoric on the looming US fiscal crisis with action on a politically difficult $4 trillion (€2.85 trillion) deal.

At a press conference yesterday ahead of the latest round of negotiations with congressional leaders, Mr Obama said he was prepared to take “significant heat” from his own Democratic Party for making changes to entitlement programmes such as Medicare and social security, and expected Republicans – who oppose new revenue increases – to do the same.

“We keep on talking about this stuff and, you know, we have these high-minded pronouncements about how we’ve got to get control of the deficit and how we owe it to our children and our grandchildren. Well, let’s step up. Let’s do it,” Mr Obama said.

The president has been attempting to salvage efforts to strike an ambitious deal to slash $4 trillion from the US’s debt over the next decade, after Republicans said they would support only a smaller package of fiscal reforms worth about $2 trillion.

This more limited package would still pave the way for the debt ceiling to be raised until after the 2012 presidential election, but would defer a solution to the country’s biggest long-term debt burden.

Mr Obama said he would host meetings with congressional leaders from both parties every day until an agreement was reached, but would not consider a temporary measure to raise the debt limit that would give the sides time to negotiate for a few more weeks or months.

This means a final deal must be reached by August 2nd to avoid a potentially devastating US default on its debt.

“We might as well do it now: pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas,” a visibly frustrated Mr Obama said. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)