meeting and and said that the situation in his mind is very serious. the challenge i have in these negotiations is whether i like it or not, i ve got to get the debt ceiling limit raised. i just want to make sure that everybody understands, um, defaulting is not an option. martha: all right. we ve heard those words before, but the fact that we heard them today may tell us something. let s bring in chris stirewalt, fox news digital politics editor. chris s the president, you know, he s had interviews with npr, today he was in maryland at this university. is the president signaling that he may be getting close to agreeing to a deal that would raise this debt ceiling and that would have no tax hikes in it? reporter: well, he ll have to give his base something. he can t expect them to walk into this without even a symbolic tax increase. but, yes, obviously, what s happening now is the president is trying to soften the blow for