U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner ruled out tax increases as a way to address the nation’s deficit after talks with President Barack Obama on budget cuts set to start taking effect later on Friday.

“The discussion about revenue, in my view is over. It’s about taking on the spending problem,” Boehner said in a short statement to reporters after leaving the White House meeting.

Obama is slated to give a statement on the talks at 11:35 a.m. EST on Friday, the White House said.

Boehner told reporters the Republican-led House would move a “continuing resolution” to fund government through the rest of the fiscal year, a stop-gap bill that must pass by March 27 to keep the government running.

“I’m hopeful that we won’t have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown,” Boehner said.

(Reuters)