Thursday at the White House meeting, House Speaker John Boehner pitched the idea of a short-term increase in the debt ceiling. This is the Speaker’s attempt to evade what the administration officials had been claiming will be an economic catastrophe.
The plan that Boehner and his colleagues agreed upon would allow for a six-week extension to the debt ceiling, provided that the president and the Democratic Party truly commit to a real negotiation. The House Speaker and the Republican Party have extended their hands across the isle trying to meet Democrats half way in regards to the government shutdown and a longer term extension to the debt ceiling.
House Speaker John Boehner and key Republican negotiators are headed to the White House Thursday afternoon, even though there seemed to be conflicting feelings in the GOP caucus. With the Treasury officials alerting the nation that they will be unable to pay all its bills by October 17 if an agreement is not met, pressure on all sides is coming in from all angles.
Evidently, this new plan does not undertake the ongoing partial government shutdown, leaving the government at an impasse. GOP leaders wish for a short-term debt ceiling raise that would entice the president to start real negotiations on a new spending bill. The White House issued a statement that was evasive in regard to the new plan, though Obama had implied that he would consider signing a short-term deal.
A White House official said:
We are willing to look at any proposal Congress puts forward to end these manufactured crises but will not allow a faction of the Republicans in the House to hold the economy hostage to its extraneous and extreme political demands. Obama still wants the House to pass a spending bill first, and raise the debt ceiling, before Obama will negotiate. Obama would prefer a longer-term debt-ceiling increase, like the one-year extension the Senate is considering.
Apparently, the White House officials feel no accountability for the partial government shutdown, pointing the finger at the “faction” of Republicans. The official also stated that Obama would prefer a longer-term debt-ceiling increase, like the one-year extension the Senate is considering.
It would seem that the White House and administration officials are trying to avoid the task at hand, by attempting to over exert the GOP’s generous offer. A source said that the GOP proposal would increase the debt ceiling with a hard deadline of Nov. 22, with the stipulation to call negotiators to discuss the budget. It would also require that President Obama work with them on both the budget and debt limit.
The treasury secretary fore warned the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling, he said payments encompassing Medicare reimbursements of military salaries to Social Security checks could be halted by the end of the month. Lew said the consequences would be unpredictable being that we are in “uncharted territory” and “it would be chaos.” However, Moody’s Investor Services released a memo yesterday clarifying that a default had “no direct connection” to the debt limit.
Some lawmakers in the Republican Party have accused the White House administration of exaggerating, yet they still do not want to dally with breaching the debt-ceiling deadline. On Friday morning, Senate Republicans are set to meet with President Obama at the White House. Hopefully, President Obama will truly sit down to negotiate and show true leadership to get the U.S back on track.
Negotiating does not mean that the Republican Party must fold to every demand by the White House administration, if there has to be an increase in the debt limit, then we must have a strict spending budget to ensure our future generations will not be subjugated in all aspects of the word.
