President Barack Obama and congressional lawmakers met at the White House for the third time in as many days yesterday, working to break a logjam over taxes and spending cuts before the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, Reuters reported.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell proposed a backup plan that would give Obama the option of raising the ceiling while avoiding spending cuts. McConnell’s proposal would let Obama raise the limit by $2.4 trillion in three installments.

Under the proposal, Congress would reject Obama’s debt-limit request, and Obama would veto the rejection. If Congress failed to vote two-thirds in favor of overriding the veto, the debt limit would effectively be lifted.

The move would likely alleviate political pressure from Republicans and place it on Obama.

Obama warned in a CBS television interview that checks to recipients of Social Security may not go out in early August if he and congressional leaders do not reach an agreement.