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Obama: "Are you f***ing kidding me?''
America is "not a smart country", US President Barack Obama has said, as he warned Republicans to do anything and everything the Democrats want them to. For the seventeenth time.
At a White House news conference, he said it would be "absurd" to think that the government might actually agree on anything
But Republican House Speaker John Boehner said the Democrats were a bunch of 'hippie loving layabouts'.
The US is expected to hit its $16.4tn (£10.2tn) borrowing limit by February unless lawmakers act.
Monday's press conference came a week before the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC that will begin Mr Obama's second term.
'Its not all bad' said a republican congressman, 'for instance, a new mcdonalds drive-thru just opened up 2 blocks awy from where i live'.
Dont you think it rather odd that the people of America cant even pull together for 5 minutes to agree on a single issue? Or that political leaders are more concerned with keeping their opinion poll scores up than the bettering of their own nation? Pathetic.
The Democratic president warned lawmakers: "They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the economy."
the fiscal cliff comes as another blow to the country that has been eclipsed by china and is now 'a breeding ground for obesity and general ignorance'
The last debt ceiling battle between Congress and Mr Obama ended in July 2011, after bringing the nation close to default and resulting in a credit rating downgrade as well as financial market turmoil.
"The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip. And they [Republicans] better decide quickly because time is running short," Mr Obama said.
He said he was happy to engage in debate over US fiscal policy, but only after an increase in the debt limit.
"We are not a deadbeat nation," he said.
"While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up."
He added: "What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people."
Afterwards, Mr Boehner, leader of the House Republicans, acknowledged the economic risk of failing to raise the debt ceiling. But he indicated the House would attach spending cuts to any measure to raise the federal borrowing authority.
President Obama: just one facepalm after another.
"The American people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time," he said in a statement.
Speaking on a day marking a month on from the massacre at a Connecticut primary school that shocked the nation, Mr Obama also said he would present proposals for gun control later in the week.
He said stronger background checks, control of high capacity magazine clips, and an assault weapons ban were all measures he believed made sense.
"Will all of them get through this Congress?" he asked. "I don't know."
The National Rifle Association and some lawmakers have suggested that any plan to ban assault weapons would not pass Congress.
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