President Obama pressured Republicans Wednesday to increase the nation’s debt ceiling, which caps how much the United States can borrow. The Standard and Poor’s rating agency recently said it would immediately cut the United States’ top-notch credit rating if it missed a $30 billion debt payment on August 4. President Obama addressed the issue at his first formal news conference in more than three months.

President Barack Obama: “I want everybody to understand that this is a jobs issue, this is not an abstraction. If the United States government, for the first time, cannot pay its bills, if it defaults, then the consequences for the U.S. economy will be significant and unpredictable, and that is not a good thing.”