Updated 1:02 p.m. Eastern Time 
 
 President Obama on Friday pointed to polls to argue that his proposal of a "balanced approach" on a debt deal - one that includes revenue increases as well as spending cuts - is what the American people want. 
 
 "My Republican friends have said that they're not willing to do revenues, and they have repeated that on several occasions," he told reporters at a news conference at the White House. "My hope, though, is that they're listening not just to lobbyists or special interests here in Washington, but they're also listening to the American people. Because it turns out, poll after poll, many done by your organizations, show that it's not just Democrats who think we need to take a balanced approach, it's Republicans as well." 
 
 A Gallup poll released Wednesday found that only 20 percent of Americans support a deal that only includes spending cuts, something Republicans have insisted on. Another 30 percent wanted a deal that was "mostly" spending cuts, and 32 percent wanted a deal split equally between spending cuts and tax increases. Eleven percent favored a deal that was mostly or all tax increases. 
 
 
 
 "The clear majority of Republican voters think that any deficit reduction package should have a balanced approach and should include some revenues," Mr. Obama said. "That's not just Democrats. That's the majority of Republicans." (That Gallup poll found that only one in four Republicans favor a deal that is only spending cuts.) 
 
 
 
 President Obama makes an opening statement on the ongoing budget negotiations before his press conference. / AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais 
 
 The president reiterated his desire to see lawmakers "do something big," saying, "We have a chance to stabilize America's finances for a decade, for 15 years or 20 years, if we're willing to seize the moment." An agreement to do so requires "shared sacrifice," he said, including cuts to defense spending, dealing with entitlement spending (including Medicare), and revenue increases. 
 
 
 
 He said he is still pushing for "a big deal" -- he has set $4 trillion as a benchmark in the past -- but also seemed to acknowledge that a smaller (if still "ambitious") deal of around $2 trillion is now more likely. He said he has told congressional leaders that "If we can't do the biggest deal possible, then let's still be ambitious, let's still try to at least get a downpayment on deficit reduction." 
 
 He said he indicated that that is something "we can actually accomplish without huge changes in revenue or significant changes in entitlements, but we could still send a signal that we are serious about this problem." 
 
 The president said he wants congressional lawmakers to come back to him within 24-36 hours with a plan, saying that "if they show me a serious plan, I'm ready to move, even it requires some tough decisions on my part." 
 
 
 
 A plan that includes spending cuts in excess of $2 trillion but is "not asking anything from the wealthiest among us or from closing corporate loopholes -- that doesn't seem like a serious plan to me," he added. 
 
 
 
 Mr. Obama's comments follow an appearance Friday morning by House Speaker John Boehner, who says Republicans are leading where the president is not. House Republicans plan a vote next week would raise the debt ceiling in conjunction with passage of a balanced budget amendment, despite the fact that such an amendment has virtually no chance of passage. (Mr. Obama said Friday that "we don't need" a balanced budget amendment.) 
 
 Obama: We don't need a balanced budget amendment 
 
 Boehner said in response to Mr. Obama's comments that "President Obama has been talking tough about cutting spending, but his deeds aren't matching his words." 
 
 "While Republicans have focused on the big problems we face, this White House has focused on protecting the status quo," he said. "The same holds true for entitlement spending, where the White House has been talking in terms of nickels and dimes at a time when trillions of dollars in serious reforms are needed to preserve the programs and put them on a sustainable path." 
 
 At a closed-door meeting Thursday, Mr. Obama told lawmakers "it's decision time" for a deal, a Democratic official familiar with the talks said. That meeting, which came after a contentious session Wednesday, was described as "very cordial" - though a breakthrough remained elusive. 
 
 Boehner: Obama has no debt plan. Republicans do 
 
 Obama presses on debt deal: "It's decision time" 
 
 Boehner says too many people trying to make deal 
 
 The Obama administration and many economists, including Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, have warned of economic catastrophe if the United States does not raise the amount it is legally allowed to borrow -- now $14.3 trillion -- by August 2. Yet lawmakers remain far apart on a deal. 
 
 Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have said they will only vote to increase the debt limit in exchange for a deficit-reduction package larger than the amount of the increase. Democrats are in favor of such a package, but there is a major point of contention between the parties: Republicans want the deal to include only spending cuts, while Democrats say it must also include revenue increases as well. 
 
 If the debt ceiling is not increased by August 2, the administration says, the United States will no longer to be able to pay its obligations, potentially resulting in default to creditors, the suspension of Social Security checks and other benefits, an increase in interest rates and a host of other extremely serious and negative economic consequences. Administration officials have suggested a deal must be in place by roughly July 22 in order to get a deal through Congress in time. 
 
 "This is not some abstract issue," Mr. Obama said Friday. "These are obligations that the United States has taken on in the past. The Congress has run up the credit card, and we now have an obligation to pay our bills. If we do not, it could have a whole set of adverse consequences. We could end up with a situation, for example, where interest rates rise for everybody all throughout the country -- effectively, a tax increase on everybody -- because suddenly, whether you're using your credit card, you're trying to get a loan for a car or a student loan, businesses that are trying to make payroll, all of them could end up being impacted as a consequence of a default." 
 
 On Wednesday, ratings agency Moody's put the United States' Aaa bond rating under review for possible downgrade as the deadline approaches, and Standard and Poor's quickly followed suit with its own warning of a possible downgrade; on Thursday, Geithner said bluntly, "we're running out of time." 
 
 There has been growing momentum around Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's "back-up plan" to effectively hand responsibility for raising the debt ceiling over to Mr. Obama. That would allow Republicans not to have to vote to raise the debt ceiling, but it could also mean no spending cuts in conjunction with the debt ceiling increase. That prospect angers fiscal conservatives. 
 
 "This proposal is a dereliction of duty by Senator McConnell and everything that's wrong with Washington," Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said Friday of the plan. "It's nothing more than a legislative maneuver by so-called Republicans to avoid responsibility for America's spending problem." 
 
 Mr. Obama described the McConnell plan as "the least attractive option" Friday, saying that "if we take that approach, this issue is going to continue to plague us for months and years to come." 
 
 Asked for specifics about what he was considering as part of a debt deal, Mr. Obama said "we've said that we are willing to look at" raising the retirement age and means testing Social Security of Medicare. He said that while he sees those two programs "as the most important social safety nets that we have," by "making some modest modifications in those entitlements can save you trillions of dollars." 
 
 
 
 More coverage of the debt limit from CBS MoneyWatch.com: 
 
 Jobs: The elephant being ignored in deficit talks? 
 
 Did Republicans just force the Fed into QE3? ||||| Twenty percent favor deficit reduction by cutting spending only 
 
 PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' preferences for deficit reduction clearly favor spending cuts to tax increases, but most Americans favor a mix of the two approaches. Twenty percent favor an approach that relies only on spending cuts and 4% favor an approach that uses tax increases alone. 
 
 
 
 
 
 These results are based on a July 7-10 Gallup poll, conducted as government leaders from both parties continued negotiating an agreement to raise the federal debt limit. Both Republicans and Democrats appear willing to raise the debt limit, provided the government outlines plans to significantly reduce federal deficits in the future. The parties generally agree on making deep spending cuts, but do not agree on whether tax increases should be included to help reach their target goals for deficit reduction. Many Republicans in Congress oppose any such tax increases; thus, the legislation may not pass if tax hikes are included. 
 
 Americans do not necessarily share this view, with 20% saying deficit reduction should come only through spending cuts. That percentage is a little higher, 26%, among those who identify as Republicans. Republicans do, however, tilt heavily in favor of reducing the deficit primarily if not exclusively with spending cuts (67%) as opposed to tax increases (3%). Fifty-one percent of independents share that preference. Democrats are most inclined to want equal amounts of spending cuts and tax increases (42%), though more favor a tilt toward spending cuts (33%) than tax increases (20%). 
 
 
 
 
 
 The question does not make clear what types of tax increases Americans might be willing to accept, or whether those saying deficit reduction should come "mostly" from spending cuts would prefer that the proportion of spending cuts be closer to 51% or 99%. The public has been willing to endorse higher taxes on wealthy Americans in recent months, in terms of allowing Bush-era income tax cuts to expire and as a means of keeping Social Security solvent. 
 
 Spending a Key Worry for Americans on Debt Limit Increase 
 
 Gallup finds about 6 in 10 Americans paying close attention to the debate about raising the debt limit. When the same poll asked for their general position on raising the limit, without providing reasons for doing so or not doing so, Americans were more likely to oppose an increase than favor one. The 42% who are opposed to doing so generally find fault with the government's spending patterns when asked in an open-ended format to explain their views. 
 
 The most common reasons given for opposing an increased debt limit are that the U.S. already has too much debt and cannot afford more, that the government needs to control its spending, and that it needs to do a better job of budgeting and living within its means. Another common response is that raising the debt limit does not implicitly address the government's debt problem, and that government would likely just keep raising the limit in the future. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The smaller proportion of Americans who favor an increase to the debt limit, 22%, are most likely to believe the United States has little choice in the matter -- in other words, the action may be undesirable but is necessary. Most commonly, proponents say they favor increasing the limit to avoid an economic catastrophe, which some experts including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner predict will occur if the government is no longer able to borrow money. The other most common reasons for favoring a higher debt limit are that the U.S. cannot default on its debt, that the country simply has "no choice" in the matter, and to avoid a disruption of government services and benefits. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Responses on both sides to a large degree reflect the arguments political leaders are making. Two of the most common, and arguably the dominant themes of the open-ended responses, are concerns about the effect that not raising the debt limit will have on the economy versus concerns that raising it will not sufficiently address government spending. In the same poll, Gallup asked Americans which of these two risks concerned them more, and the public expressed greater concern about raising the debt ceiling without a plan for major cuts in future government spending (51%) than about the potential harm to the economy if the debt ceiling is not raised (32%). 
 
 Read the verbatim responses. 
 
 
 
 Implications 
 
 Government spending seems to be the primary worry for Americans when their opinions are probed about raising the debt limit. Government leaders appear to be listening, as party leaders are proposing major cuts in future government spending as a way to persuade members of Congress to vote for an increase in the nation's debt limit. In terms of deficit reduction, Americans seem to generally back an approach that relies more on spending cuts than tax increases. A key question to be answered in the days ahead is whether an agreement to raise the debt ceiling will include any tax increases. This is something many Republican members of Congress oppose, but most Americans do not seem to share this view. 
 

– President Obama got combative in his press conference today, saying Republicans’ refusal to raise revenues in a debt ceiling deal is out of touch. “My hope, though, is that they're listening not just to lobbyists or special interests here in Washington, but they're also listening to the American people,” he said, according to CBS. “Because it turns out, poll after poll, many done by your organizations, show that it's not just Democrats who think we need to take a balanced approach, it's Republicans as well.” Obama was referring in part to a Wednesday Gallup poll showing that a mere 20% of Americans thought a deal should include only spending cuts, with the rest favoring some tax increases. “That’s not just Democrats. That’s the majority of Republicans,” Obama said. Indeed, even among Republicans, only 26% supported a cuts-only deal. Obama also reiterated his determination to “do something big,” and “stabilize America’s finances for a decade, for 15 or 20 years.” (Click to read about negotiations for "Plan B" on the debt ceiling.)