From NBC's Alexandra Moe
President Barack Obama warned Libya's Moammar Khaddafy to stop attacking his people or the United States and it's allies will be forced to take military action.

AP

President Barack Obama makes a statement on Libya, March 18th, at the White House.

"Let me be clear, these terms are not negotiable; these terms are not subject to negotiation," Obama said Friday at the White House. "If Khaddafy does not comply, the international community will impose consequences, and the resolution will be enforced through military action."

This statement comes just a day after the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1973 authorizing military action and a "no-fly zone" over Libya.

Khaddafy's government announced a cease-fire early Friday but reports suggest assaults are continuing despite warnings from the United States.

The exact role the US would play if the international community was forced to take action was not made totally clear by Obama but he did state what he would not do.

"The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya.  And we are not going to use force to go beyond a well-defined goal," the President said. "Our goal is focused, our cause is just, and our coalition is strong."

Obama also announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go to Paris Saturday to meet with allies about the situation in Libya.

From NBC's Alexandra Moe
As the U.S. government inches closer to reaching the legal amount it is allowed to borrow, Republican Sen. Pat Toomey laid out a plan that he says would prevent the government from defaulting on its loans without increasing the amount of money the U.S. can legally borrow. Toomey said he was fearful of what would happen if immediate action was not taken to control the federal debt.

"The thing that worries me as a much as anything else is the danger that we could have a dangerous and catastrophic shock," Toomey said before the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Toomey introduced legislation, which would require the Treasury department to pay off some debts and defer payments of others. That stands in direct contrast to warnings from the Obama administration.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that it is "essential" for Congress to raise the $14.29 trillion debt limit soon because sometime between April 5 and May 31, the government will exceed what it can now legally borrow to cover it's obligations.

Toomey believes the president is not supporting this bill, because he would rather try to scare members of Congress into voting for an increase in the ceiling.

Republicans have mixed views on how to tackle the debt ceiling with many saying they won't support an increase without significant structural reforms in the budget process or big spending cuts.

Some Republicans are requesting that Congress vote in favor of a balanced-budget amendment before they deal with the debt ceiling. The amendment, offered by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), would require a super-majority to raise taxes and possible spending caps that would create immediate reductions in government spending.

AP

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. KentConrad (D-N.D.), speaks about the Congressional Budget Office's economic outlook during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

From NBC's Alexandra Moe
Both Republicans and Democrats responded to the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) economic outlook released today that shows the United States continues to face tough economic challenges.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) emphasized the importance of working together on deficit reduction without threatening the country’s climb out of the recession.

"It is the deteriorating, long-term outlook that is the biggest threat to the country's economic security," Conrad said. All bi-partisan fiscal commissions dealing with the topic, he said, have concluded the same plan: Don't endanger this growing recovery but adopt a plan now that is credible and gets us back on track."

CBO predicts that the budget deficit would jump to nearly $1.5 trillion in 2011 and that unemployment rates will still be high.

"The unemployment rate will only fall to 9.2% in the 4th quarter of this year and 8.2% in the 4th quarter of 2012," CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said. It would not be until 2016 that the unemployment rate would get down close to the "natural rate" of unemployment.

This report comes the day after President Obama delivered his State of the Union address during which he proposed a five-year spending freeze for many domestic programs while still encouraging investing in education, transportation and renewable energy.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and other Senate republicans announced their support of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution to help bring down the nation's debt.

"It is time to cut spending, not freeze it," Hatch said referring to the president's proposal in his speech last night.

Obama is expected to submit his budget request for fiscal 2012 during the second week of February. The constitutional amendment would require the president to submit a balanced budget to Congress.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) noted that past efforts to pass a balanced budget amendment failed, but the national debt has never been as big as it is now.

"In 1997 when Senator Hatch lead this effort as he is here today, there were 11 Democrats that voted for that joint resolution," Sen. John Cornyn said. "Given the numbers then and the numbers now, I think the case is very compelling and I fully expect that we will have a number of democrats that join us."

But CBO's Elmendorf doesn't think there is one single policy change that could eliminate these fiscal problems. "Unfortunately, it is likely that a return to normal economic conditions will take years," he said.