GOP's Kirk: Attach deficit plan to debt increase

Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said on Sunday he wants the so-called "Gang of Six" deficit reduction plan attached to any proposal to raise the debt limit - and that he will not vote for an increase to that limit unless he is convinced Democrats have committed to "comprehensive" and "broad-based" cuts to federal spending.

In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," Kirk said whether or not he would vote for raising the debt ceiling was contingent on accompanying plans to reduce the deficit.

"Maybe or maybe not," he told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "I will vote no on raising the debt ceiling unless we have comprehensive, dramatic, effective and broad-based cuts to federal spending, including the reform of entitlement spending."

According to projections by the Treasury, the U.S. government is expected to hit its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by the end of May. If Congress does not approve an increase to the limit, the federal government could default on its bonds for the first time in history, and Social Security and Medicare checks would likely see delays as a result of the government's inability to make payments to agencies.

A number of Republicans have threatened to withhold their approval of the increase without the assurance of "really, really big" concessions.

Kirk suggested attaching to any increase in the debt limit a report currently being hashed out by the bipartisan deficit commission (the so-called "Gang of Six") on tackling the nation's spending, deficit, and debt problems. He said that, barring such a move, he could not support sending a "blank check" to the government.

"I think the best play here is to have the bipartisan deficit commission report of the Gang of Six attached to the debt limit extension," he told Schieffer. "That would be huge cuts in the future spending of the United States, that may be a good deal. Without that, we should not send a blank check to the administration. We would risk repeating the mistakes of the governments of Greece, Portugal and Ireland, all who said yes to everyone and no to their economic future."

The "Gang of Six" - which includes Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) - has yet to unveil its proposal, however, and it is unclear how close the commission is to issuing a final report.

In a Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Sens. Conrad and Coburn acknowledged the importance of their mission, but declined to offer details about where the discussion stands, or to give a timeline for their report.

Some Republicans, however, argue that reaching the debt limit would not be as bad as Democrats are making it out to be.

Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) told Schieffer he thought the impact of failing to increase the debt limit was being "overstated."

"The administration is playing politics with this issue," Walsh said on "Face the Nation," "just like they're playing politics with entitlement reform.

"All we have to do is look at the last 20 years," Walsh added. "Three or four times over the course of the last 20 years, Congress has voted not to raise the debt ceiling, and it's taken a few months and then they've come together and they've raised it. But over the course of those few months when the debt ceiling wasn't raised, Armageddon didn't hit."

White House officials have repeatedly warned that failing to raise the limit would be disastrous.

In an interview earlier this year, White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee warned that "the impact on the economy would be catastrophic."

"If we hit the debt ceiling, that's ... essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history," he said in a January interview with ABC's "This Week."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has argued that the resulting damage to the economy could be "potentially much more harmful than the effects of the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009."

Still, Walsh said he would not vote to raise the limit unless Democrats agreed to a term that "fundamentally changes the way we do business here in Washington when it comes to spending.

"I'm sponsoring a balanced budget amendment in the house that all 47 Republican Senators have signed on to," he told Schieffer. "It's got to be something structural that says we are going to cut up this credit card and we're going to quit spending money we don't have and placing all of this debt on the backs of our kids and our grandkids."