President Obama is holding a town hall at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland to discuss the his plans for raising the debt ceiling and reducing the deficit. Live feed and coverage below, and join the discussion in the comments.
8:22 AM PT: "The only people we have left to convince are some people in the House of Representatives." He says he's optimistic that can be done. Does that mean Senate Democrats are convinced that "tax reform" is the same thing as "shared sacrifice"?
8:26 AM PT: First question has nothing to do with deficit reduction. It's a question about whether taxpayer funded religious groups should be able to discriminate on the basis of religion. Obama says something about a dialogue continuing. Next question is on topic.
8:30 AM PT: The second question is a great one: "Why push so hard for a big settlement now?" The questioner wants to know why not try to win 2012 election and then do a better deal then, and use the 14th amendment now. Obama's answer boils down to: Because I'm being held hostage by the debt ceiling. I need to get 218 votes. And his lawyers don't believe the 14th amendment gives him the authority to ignore the debt limit.
8:37 AM PT: The third question is about what he regrets as President. I missed the first part of his answer, but he said he wishes he'd spent more time communicating some of his successes.
8:42 AM PT: Fourth question is about when the war on drugs will be ended. Obama says he's told his drug office to focus on prevention as well as interdiction, because interdiction alone won't work. But he opposes decriminalization.