White House: Obama won't veto GOP short-term debt limit plan
The White House said today that President Obama would not veto a House Republican plan to suspend the debt limit for three months, even though the president thinks a temporary solution is far from ideal.
"The Administration would not oppose a short-term solution to the debt limit and looks forward to continuing to work with both the House and the Senate to increase certainty and stability for the economy," the White House said in an official statement of policy released today.
The House plans to vote tomorrow on a bill to suspend the nation's $16.4 trillion debt limit until mid-May, giving Congress more time to negotiate over the limit. The bill would also require the House and Senate to pass a budget. If either chamber failed to pass a budget, according to this proposal, their congressional salaries would be withheld.
"All we're saying is, if the president and the Senate, if this country needs to incur more debt, Senate, please show us your plan to repay that debt, please show us your plan to control spending," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said this evening.
The House bill, the White House statement of policy warned, "introduces unnecessary complications, needlessly perpetuating uncertainty in the Nation's fiscal system." However, it said that the administration is encouraged the bill "lifts the immediate threat of default and indicates that congressional Republicans have backed off an insistence on holding the Nation's economy hostage to extract drastic cuts in Medicare, education, and other programs that middle-class families depend on."
Should Congress fail to raise the debt limit, the nation could potentially default on its loans, which economists say would have a severe economic impact. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has informed Congress that the Treasury is expected to exhaust its borrowing authority by mid-February or early March.
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Republicans are intent on reducing spending in exchange for raising the nation's borrowing authority. President Obama and Democrats, however, say there should be no conditions attached to the debt limit, since it covers debt already racked up in Washington -- not future spending.
W.H. will support short-term suspension of debt limit, Carney says
"We can continue to engage -- and we will -- with members of Congress, over the need to further reduce our deficit in a balanced way," White House spokesman Jay Carney said today. "The president has put forward plans, as you know, that demonstrate the fact that he is willing to compromise, that he is willing to meet Republicans halfway on these issues, and he will continue to do that. But the debt ceiling needs to not be a part of that, because it's terrible for the economy, and it seems also to be bad politics."
Republicans, however, say that tax revenue increases are off the table now. That part of the discussion ended, they say, when Washington let the Bush-era tax rates expire for the top 1 percent. Now, the GOP says it's only willing to discuss spending cuts as a means of deficit reduction.
"The tax issue is over," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, told reporters. "I would venture to say there is not a single Republican vote in the House or Senate to provide more revenue, and the reason for that is we all know revenue is not the problem... This not a revenue problem, this is a spending problem."
At a closed-door meeting with House GOP conference members, a source in the room tells CBS News, House Speaker John Boehner told members that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan will be working with the conference to draft a budget by April 15. With the right reforms in place, Paul's goal is to advance a budget that balances within a decade, Boehner said.
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Baggers would rather die for ideology than face reality.
This is why you lose.
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No, the reason they lose is because they are big spending statists warmongers, who have to take a poll every morning in order to know what they believe that day. They have no convictions and are concerned about nothing except where the next campaign contribution is coming from. They are very much like their colleagues on the other side of the isle.
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It will make the Dem's job of winning future elections so much simpler if you 'cons continue to believe that. Thanks. I mean, really, thanks. I'm sure its so much easier to believe that than to think you are flawed in some way or have an unpopular message. That way, like a good conservative, you will never have to change anything about yourself. Life is so much simpler that way, when you can blame others for your own problems and faults.
This is long, long overdue. The Republicans were eager to talk in generic terms about all of the tax loopholes they were willing to close in the presidential campaign, and in the first round of 'fiscal cliff' talks.
Now, we'll hopefully see them follow through and go along with the Dems on actually closing them. I'm a top 20%er which puts me in the meat of the highest paying people in terms of percentages.
When people making ten or a hundred times what I earn pay little or nothing, that's something that needs to be fixed. When highly profitable corporations pay little or nothing, or in some cases get subsidies of my tax dollars, that needs to get fixed.
If they want to raise my tax rate, go ahead, as long as everybody who makes more than me pays at least the same total rate that I do, regardless of whether they make their money by working for it like I do, or by moving money around, or by inheriting it.
OK, Republicans, let's see if you'll follow through on what you said you are willing to do.
"A minuscule (sp ck-try it) few who seek tax shelters" are You Serious? There is more money of the top 2% & corporations overseas than this country will ever see. *sigh* go away until you have something valid to say.
This is why you lose.