Republicans contemplating government shutdown over debt fight
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., left, and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, arrive to a second Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. / AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin
Updated 11:55 am E.T.
Republican leadership has publicly laid out drastic terms ahead of the multi-pronged debt fight Washington faces next month.
"I think it is possible that we would shut down the government to make sure President Obama understands that we're serious," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., the fourth ranking Republican in the House, told Politico.
Congress is facing a trifecta of events that will make up the next budget battle: the debt limit will be maxed out by the end of February or early March, the $1.2 trillion sequester is set to go into effect March 1 and government funding for the current fiscal year expires on March 27.
Public admission that House Republicans are willing to shut down the government over the debt ceiling and spending means that the stakes have just been raised. Mr. Obama has said that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling. He wants Congress to raise it with no strings attached.
As the 113th Congress comes back into session today, wanting to get out in front of the issue, the president held a news conference about the budget battles, where he had a sharp message for congressional Republicans: "The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip." Mr. Obama said it would be Republicans' fault if the debt ceiling is not raised. He said it would mean people might not receive their Social Security or disability checks, the government would stop functioning and international investors would question U.S. economic strength.
"To even entertain the idea of this happening, of America not paying its bills, is irresponsible. It's absurd," he added.
The White House put out a pointed statement over the weekend, indicting their insistence against a knock-out fight. "When Congressional Republicans played politics with this issue last time, putting us at the edge of default, it was a blow to our economic recovery, causing our nation's credit rating to be downgraded," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "Congress needs to do its job."
But Republicans are sounding defiant. "We always talk about whether or not we're going to kick the can down the road. I think the mood is that we've come to the end of the road," McMorris Rogers told Politico.
Republicans want deep spending cuts. According to the Politico story, they want an additional $1 trillion of spending cuts in addition to the $1.2 trillion sequester.
Another option for a rancorous House GOP conference is default, which means allowing the debt ceiling to be reached, prohibiting the Treasury Department from paying the bills already incurred.
"No one wants to default, but we are not going to continue to give the president a limitless credit card," Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Politico.
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The Pew Center reported in April 2011 the cause of a $12.7 trillion "shift" in the debt situation "from a 2001 CBO forecast of a cumulative $2.3 trillion surplus by 2011" to the estimated $10.4 trillion public debt we actually faced in 2011. The major drivers were:
Revenue "declines due to the recession", separate from the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 28%
Defense spending increases: 15%
Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003: 13%
Increases in net interest: 11%
Other non-defense spending: 10%
Other tax cuts: 8%
Obama Stimulus: 6%
Medicare Part D: 2%
Other reasons: 7%
sounds like they dont need our permission. sounds like they are turning us to the greatest debtor nation all by themselves just fine.
you arent looking at the math right. you are looking at politician math hahahaha 2+2=5 hahaha
IT IS EVERY OTHER CONGRESS GOING BACK INTO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT GAVE AWAY TAX REVENUES, REDUCED TAXES AND INCREASED THE DEFICIT WITH THE BUSH TAX CUTS.
REMEMBER THOSE TAX CUTS IMPLEMENTED WITH BUSH AND A MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE? THAT LEGISLATION DESTROYED THE BALANCED BUDGET AGREEMENT PLAN BETWEEN CONGRESS AND CLINTON SOME 8 YEARS EARLIER THAT WAS TO HAVE BALANCED THE BUDGET BY 2014? NEXT YEAR!!!
THANKS TO REPUBLICANS TAKING CARE OF THE ULTRA RICH DURING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, WE HAVE ANOTHER CRUSHING DECADE OF TAX INCREASES AND BENEFIT CUTS TO MANAGE.
WE NEED A SMALLER GOVERNMENT? LET'S START BY THROWING OUT REPUBLICANS FROM EVERY BRANCH THAT VOTED OR ASSISTED IN THE BUSH TAX CUTS OR ARE NOW GOING TO BRING THE GOVERNMENT TO A HALT OVER THE DEBT CEILING. VOTE DEMOCRAT TIL THE REPUBLICANS ARE A LESSON IN HISTORY AS TO A DISCRIMINATORY CLASS PARTY.
-The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child.
That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic.
The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. ... Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.
Thats Barry for you. Hypocrite!
"Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings...out of the 300 million...who are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.
Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do."
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!