By Corey Boles

A group of Republicans pledged to block any attempt to recess the Senate for the July 4 holiday weekend in an attempt to compel a budget deal. The GOP seeks to engage the majority Democrats in a debate on spending cuts that would be attached to a measure increasing the country's $ 14.29 trillion debt ceiling.

Saying they were taking up President Barack Obama's challenge, the group of largely freshmen Republican lawmakers said they would object to any attempt by the Democratic majority to recess the Senate next week for the July 4 break.

"Our country is going bankrupt, we shouldn't be going home on a holiday," Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) said at a press conference.

Johnson was echoed by other Republicans who urged the president to deliver his proposal for reining in the federal budget deficit rather than continuing to negotiate a deal behind closed doors.

At a press conference at the White House earlier Wednesday, Obama said that lawmakers shouldn't leave town at the end of the week unless significant progress toward a debt deal had been accomplished.

"If by the end of this week we have not seen substantial progress, then I think members of Congress need to understand we are going to, you know, start having to cancel things and stay here until we get it done," Obama said.

Several of the group said that in the six months since they had arrived in the Senate, they had found the lack of progress on approving a budget astonishing.

Senate Democrats are convening shortly to get a briefing following a meeting at the White House with Democratic leaders. According to a Senate Democratic leadership aide, the lawmakers will also consider whether or not to cancel next week's recess.

Johnson did indicate that he is willing to consider closing business tax deductions as part of a budget deal, although he, like other Republicans said he would prefer to do so as part of a wider effort at overhauling the corporate tax overhaul.

"I would like to do away with special tax breaks, but not legitimate business deductions," Johnson said.

The issue of whether the budget compromise should include the closure of any tax breaks available to business groups has become a crucial stumbling block in the talks. Democrats have insisted the deal must not just include spending cuts, while most Republicans have said it shouldn't raise taxes on businesses as the economy recovers.

Johnson is the latest in a growing number of Senate Republicans who have expressed a willingness to at least consider closing some of these deductions as part of a deal.

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