Obama Presses Congress to Act on His Priorities The president, meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders over lunch at the White House on Wednesday, is pushing Congress to approve a proposal to help small businesses that hire additional workers. "Too many folks are still out of work," Mr. Obama said in an appearance with four local small-business owners at a delicatessen in Washington. We've got some headwinds: the situation in Europe and still a difficult housing market. Mr. Obama will be addressing the situation in Europe this weekend when he hosts world leaders at the Group of 8 economic summit meeting at Camp David, Md., although it remains unlikely that there is much the United States can do to insulate itself from the financial crisis across the Atlantic. So, with an election fast approaching, Mr. Obama is making the case that Congressional Republicans are blocking initiatives that could help spur the economy - hence the "to-do list." "So my message to Congress, and I'm going to have a chance to see the Congressional leadership when I get back to the White House - I'm going to offer them some hoagies while they're there - is let's go ahead and act to help build and sustain momentum for our economy," the president said, mentioning the sandwiches he picked up during the deli stop. There will be more than enough time for us to campaign and politic, but let's make sure that we don't lose steam at a time when a lot of folks like these are feeling pretty optimistic and are ready to go. Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill appeared to be hunkering down for another fight over the budget and the debt ceiling. Last summer, Republicans balked for weeks over raising the country's debt ceiling unless there were commensurate cuts in spending. The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, signaled on Tuesday that he was ready for a replay. "Allowing the debt ceiling to go up without addressing our fiscal challenge would be the most irresponsible thing that I could do," Mr. Boehner said in a speech on Tuesday at a conference in Washington. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner said there was no reason to wait until the country reached the next debt limit - after the elections - to enact more spending cuts. "Let's go," he said.