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WASHINGTON – Testy lawmakers pointed fingers at one another and President Barack Obama on Thursday as negotiations over raising the national debt limit entered a perilous endgame. Wall Street eyed the standoff with growing anxiety, warning of catastrophe if the U.S. defaults on its obligations.

Obama’s blunt declaration that “enough is enough” as Wednesday’s talks ended did nothing to quell the rancour as a new day of positioning and posturing began.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rose on the Senate floor early Thursday to snipe that House Minority Leader Eric Cantor shouldn’t even be part of the talks anymore, noting that the Virginia Republican has been called “childish.” And not long after, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell stood to serve notice that the debt problem belonged squarely in Obama’s lap.

“Republicans will not be reduced to being the tax collectors for the Obama economy,” McConnell said. “Don’t expect any more cover from Republicans on it than you got on health care. None.”

None of it was a promising prelude to negotiations scheduled to resume at the White House on Thursday afternoon, less than three weeks before an Aug. 2 deadline for increasing the government’s borrowing authority. Behind the scenes, meanwhile, legislators and White House officials continued to work on a backup plan offered by McConnell to avoid government default.

Obama is demanding that budget negotiators find common ground by week’s end, as the financial world watches with growing jitters.

“No one can tell me with certainty that a U.S. default wouldn’t cause catastrophe and wouldn’t severely damage the U.S. or global economy,” Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., told reporters Thursday. “And it would be irresponsible to take that chance.”