WASHINGTON (AFP) ? President Barack Obama plans to warn Americans late Monday that a continuing impasse in the US debt crisis would cause "incalculable damage," and call for bipartisan compromise, a White House official said.
Obama was set to deliver the warning in a rare primetime speech to the nation as Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress remained deadlocked over a plan to raise the US debt ceiling and deal with huge deficits.
"President Obama, like Democratic and Republican presidents before him, will make clear that failure to compromise and raise the debt ceiling would, in the words of former president Reagan, do 'incalculable damage'," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"With eight days until deadline, compromise is the only reasonable path ahead to keep our economy strong and growing," the official said.
Obama's 9:00 pm (0100 GMT) speech from the White House's ornate East Room would be only his seventh formal address to the nation, and the first since he unveiled a timeline for a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in June.
The address came with Democrats who control the Senate and Republicans who lead the House of Representatives at odds over rival plans for raising the $14.3 trillion US debt limit, allowing cash-strapped Washington to stay open.
Washington hit its debt ceiling on May 16 but has used spending and accounting adjustments, as well as higher-than-expected tax receipts, to continue operating normally but can only do so through August 2.
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