Good afternoon. Thanks for being here at the White House. I have no announcements, so let’s go straight to questions. Jim.

Well, it sounds like you’ve gotten some points for you. Let’s just be clear. There is one party to these negotiations who has put forward a specific...

Well, I think, as it's been reported -- of course, not by us, but has been described by those who have received it -- the President has moved in his...

Well, here's what the President is proposing. He's proposing that the legislation authored by Senator McConnell -- not a noted Obama sympathizer --...

Here's what I'll say about that. The President believes Congress ought to do its job. Let's remember what a vote to raise the debt ceiling is. It...

I’m not going to get into specifics. Although since so much of this seems to leak from elsewhere, I think it’s known that we have exchanged offers.

Well, I’m not going to get into specifics, but everything that's behind --

Well, again, Jessica, everything that -- every conversation that we’ve had with Congress both at the level of Secretary Geithner and Rob Nabors and...

Well, I don't understand what you're saying. So we have the documentation; they have the documentation. If you’re saying, verbally, if he repeats...

That's correct.

But that is our proposal. They know what our --

Right. We have put forward specific cuts. And let me remind you that even the House Republican budget, which is sometimes cited as the source for...

Well, I’m not sure if we are 11/12’s of the way through the year -- we are, we’re even beyond that. So I think that’s a fair assessment that...

The President does not believe that he should negotiate with himself. He has made abundantly clear that Republicans need to accept the fact that rates...

Well, look, there’s no question that we haven’t reached an agreement. It’s also true that the parameters of an agreement are very clear, and...

Well, look, I think it’s worrisome for the American people that thus far the House Republican leadership has refused to accept the fundamental principle...

You’re asking me, I can tell, to engage in conversation about potential personnel decisions the President is making and will make. And I have no...

The President thinks very highly of Senator Hagel. I think a lot of people in Washington and around the country, and especially in Senator Hagel’s...

Again, I’m not going to get into specific --

Well, that is a specific difference. What I can say is that we have yet to see --

Here’s what I will tell --

Fair enough. Here’s what I will say, is that on the fundamental obstacle, the answer is, no, we have not seen in any of our conversations or offers...

Again, we see no specificity. And what Jason Furman got up here and described to you in great detail, using solid facts and analysis by independent...

Sure.

We have not seen any specificity when it comes to spending cuts. We know that Republicans want greater spending cuts, but we don't know how they would...

It's a good question. We still believe that a big deal is possible. We believe the parameters are there and we remain confident that if Republicans...

That's not saying that there --

In case of emergency, the House should break the glass; the House Speaker ought to allow the Republicans to vote on extending tax cuts for 98 percent...

I haven't discussed reports like that with him, so I'm not sure he's aware of it. But we deplore violence in any case. And the President feels very...

I'm sorry, Bill.

Well, I guess it's a question of semantics in terms of what negotiations mean. But we have obviously had meetings and we've had discussions and we've...

Well, no, because we've put forward spending cuts. And if --

Right, and they achieve a significant amount of savings. And if the --

Do they? Because the math doesn't back up their words, which is frequently the case. They do achieve significant savings. And what distinguishes...

That's not what I'm saying, Bill. That's what you're saying.

Negotiation is taking place and we've put forward offers. And what we have not seen from the Republicans is any movement at all on the fundamental...

I'm not even aware of that story, so I don't have an opinion.

I've been focused on the fiscal cliff, on Syria, on North Korea -- so I'm not aware of those stories.

And what's the Republican view?

Well, I haven't said that. I've said -- you've never heard me say if we go off the cliff, the American people will blame one side or the other. What...

Speaker Boehner was here --

Speaker Boehner was here a few days ago.

I’m sure that if -- first of all, the Speaker of the House was here. The President has spoken to the Speaker of the House recently. The Speaker...

Every time that you guys seem to think that a physical meeting is the elixir to all our ills, I think it would behoove you to ask the Speaker if he...

And there's actually hard lines here, and I think the Speaker knows that.

I don’t have any phone calls or conversations to preview for you.

Kristen.

No, the McConnell plan was separate from the spending cuts that were part of the Affordable Care Act.

I think you ought to ask the Speaker if in the 1990s when Bill Clinton was President and Washington was able to erase deficits for the first time in...

To pay for the work that they’ve already done.

Correct.

Okay, so the alternative, which is default, is to not pay for the bills that Congress has incurred.

Again, I could go over the history again. In our lifetimes, certainly yours, the last time and the only time that deficits have turned into surpluses...

Absolutely not. We have explicitly condemned the use of missiles. It is just another demonstration of the utter depravity of the Assad regime and...

Our policy remains what it was, and we obviously consult with our allies and others and evaluate the situation regularly. But we believe that providing...

Look, I think that the parameters of an agreement are clear. They’re not complicated. And we hope and look forward to the time when Republicans...

I haven’t seen those remarks, but I can tell you that I’m not going to negotiate specifics of the -- I'm not doubting them, I’m just saying --...

Let me take the answer for the President, which is that we’re not going to engage in hypotheticals about what a package would like on the spending...

I don't speak for Senator Durbin.

Mara.

Well, I mean, that’s -- there’s a broad range of crazy ideas I’m sure that I could rule out. But the President is committed to making sensible...

No, that's not what I said, Mara. Go back to the beginning of my answer. I’m sure there are all sorts of bad ideas that could be thrown out there...

Well, again, the President is not going to rule in or rule out things in interviews. He has been trying to have these conversations and negotiations...

I don't have any updates on the President’s schedule. The President’s schedule is what it is. And when we have -- if we have adjustments to that...

I don't think that's required. But again, what we hope to see is some acknowledgement by Republican leaders that existing law when it comes to the...

I think that that's a question that you’d have to ask leaders in Congress because they decide the calendar. They have an even deeper understanding...

Well, I saw those remarks. I would say that we certainly agree that Assad will not be a part of Syria’s future. We have noted as the media has the...

Well, I can certainly tell you that in the effort to extend the payroll tax cut last year and in the effort to ensure that rates on student loans didn’t...

Well, I don’t have -- I cannot say that a Republican congressman who now believes we ought to extend tax cuts for the middle class and accepts that...

Kristen remembers that. I just mean that -- I just want to be clear that the only time in her lifetime there's been a surplus was under Bill Clinton.

Well, I'm not sure about that assessment. I think that President Clinton and then-Speaker Gingrich continued to talk and negotiate, even though they...

I have never seen that happen on this end.

On the second question, I think you've seen us be very explicit about our desire to have China exert the influence that it has on North Korea. I think...

But in terms of what Secretary Gates said, I don’t have a timeline for you, but we certainly believe, as demonstrated by what we've said in reaction...

Well, I think it's certainly still the view that is the case, but I don’t have a timeline for you and I would simply refer back to Secretary Gates's...

Last one.

Well, they are certainly at different stages in the developments of their prohibitive programs, and there are different countries -- there are in some...