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John Boehner To Ask House GOP For Short-Term Debt Ceiling Increase
WASHINGTON
(AP) — GOP aides say House Speaker John Boehner will ask House
Republicans to approve a short-term extension of the government's
ability to borrow to meet its bills.
The Ohio Republican is slated
to urge his staunchly conservative GOP colleagues to act before the
government runs out of borrowing authority next week.
Republicans
have been insistent that budget cuts and other measures be added to the
so-called debt ceiling legislation but the aides wouldn't say whether
he'll seek to add other material to the measure.
The aides
required anonymity to reveal the information before Boehner makes an
announcement after a closed-door meeting with his GOP colleagues.
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House GOP, White House to keep up fiscal talks after 'useful' meeting
By Michael O'Brien and Carrie Dann, NBC News
House
Republicans are continuing closed-door talks after meeting with
President Barack Obama for almost 90 minutes Thursday to discuss a
possible short-term extension of the nation's debt limit. Those
negotiations - the most serious talks to date on the fiscal impasse -
were expected to continue into Thursday evening.
“We had a very
useful meeting, it was clarifying for both sides as to where we are,”
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters after the White House
meeting. “Our teams are going to be talking further tonight. We'll have
more discussion. We will come back to have more discussion. The
President said that he would go and consult with the administration
folks and hopefully we can see a way forward after that.”
In a
statement, the White House called it a "good meeting," although "no
specific determination was made" about how to fix the fiscal impasse.
"The
President looks forward to making continued progress with members on
both sides of the aisle. The President’s goal remains to ensure we pay
the bills we’ve incurred, reopen the government and get back to the
business of growing the economy, creating jobs and strengthening the
middle class."
"The president didn't say yes, he didn't say no,"
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., told NBC News. "It was a useful conversations.
We're now going to negotiate."
GOP leaders are proposing extending
the nation’s debt limit for six weeks to allow for budget negotiations,
but the plan would do nothing to end the ongoing federal shutdown.
Obama
met with 20 top House Republicans for over an hour at the White House
Thursday to address the GOP proposal. The government is slated to run
out of borrowing power on October 17, the Treasury Department says.
Republicans were tight-lipped about the meeting, avoiding a gaggle of press after the leaving the White House.
Earlier Thursday, the prospects for compromise looked somewhat bright.
White
House press secretary Jay Carney called the GOP proposal "encouraging"
and told reporters Obama would likely sign such legislation.
"The
president is happy that cooler heads at least seem to be prevailing in
the House," Carney said at the daily press briefing. He added: "I think
the president said the other day, if they were to send him a clean debt
ceiling extension, no partisan strings attached he would sign it. But
we don't know that's what we're going to get here."
Stocks were up sharply Thursday morning amid the signs of potential progress on the debt ceiling extension, something Wall Street has been paying close attention to as next week’s expected October 17 debt ceiling deadline looms.
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House GOP unveils six-week debt hike that continues shutdown
By Russell Berman and Erik Wasson - 10/10/13 12:14 PM ET
House
Republican leaders will offer President Obama a six-week extension of
the nation’s debt limit that would not end the government shutdown now
in its 10th day.
In exchange, Republicans want a commitment from
the White House to negotiate a longer-term budget plan that would reopen
the government.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) presented the
proposal to rank-and-file Republicans in a closed-door meeting Thursday,
hours before more than a dozen GOP lawmakers head to the White House to
meet with Obama.“It is our hope that the president will look at this as
an opportunity and a good-faith effort on our part to move halfway,
halfway to what he’s demanded in order to have these conversations
begin,” Boehner told reporters after the meeting.
Boehner said the ending of the shutdown would depend on how the president responded.
“That’s the conversation we’re going to have with the president today,” he said.
The
Speaker acknowledged that the fiscal crisis that has gripped the
capital could come back if no agreement is reached by Nov. 22, the date
that Republicans would set as the new debt-limit deadline.
“Clearly, you could end up back in the same place, and we don’t want to be here,” Boehner said.
The
House hopes to move quickly on the plan, but a vote would not occur
before the White House meeting, scheduled for 4:30 p.m., aides said.
The
debt limit bill would also restrict the Treasury Department from using
"extraordinary measures" to increase borrowing after Nov. 22, aides
said.
"The date in the bill is the real date — no more monkeying around," a leadership aide said.
A
separate resolution would appoint Republican negotiators for a
House-Senate budget conference committee, which Democrats have demanded
for months.
It is far from clear that the Speaker’s plan would succeed, either with Democrats or with members of his own conference.
The
White House on Thursday reiterated Obama’s demand that the GOP both
lift the $16.7 trillion debt limit and reopen the government before
negotiations begin.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) announced plans for a procedural vote Saturday on legislation
to raise the debt ceiling by $1 trillion and through the end of 2014.
The White House backs the longer extension, but it is unclear whether Reid can muster the 60 votes necessary to pass it.
A
White House official said Thursday that the administration was “willing
to look at any proposal Congress puts forward,” while again insisting
that Obama would “not pay a ransom" and preferred a longer debt-ceiling
extension.
“It is better for economic certainty for Congress to
take the threat of default off the table for as long as possible, which
is why we support the Senate Democrats’ efforts to raise the debt limit
for a year with no extraneous political strings attached,” the official
said.
The official also said that Obama would be willing to
negotiate a broader budget agreement only after Republicans pass a
debt-ceiling increase and reopen the government.
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POLITICO
John Boehner's offer puts President Obama on the spot
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By adopting the plan, Obama would avoid a potentially crippling blow to the economy. | AP Photos
President Barack Obama may get the clean debt limit extension he’s been demanding, but it wouldn’t be a clean victory.
By
adopting the House GOP plan to raise the debt ceiling, Obama would
avoid a potentially crippling blow to the economy and, in the White
House’s view, finally break Republicans of their habit of seeking
concessions each time the debt ceiling needs to be raised.
But the downsides are significant. The federal
government might not immediately reopen, there’s no guarantee
Republicans would stop using the debt limit as leverage in the future
and Obama could find himself in the same position once the temporary
extension expires.
And yet, Obama may have little choice but to accept House Speaker
John Boehner’s offer because it delivers what the president wanted: a
debt limit hike with no ideological strings attached.
“If a clean debt limit bill is passed, he would likely sign it,”
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. “The key is they
don’t get anything in exchange.”
The big question for the White House and Republicans in Congress is
the definition of the word “clean.” It may be that the White House has
to look at yesterday’s shirt — presentable, if not just-starched — as
clean enough.
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President Barack Obama pauses to rub his eye as he speaks about ... more >
who lost coverage because of the president’s signature law, as balky
websites keep a veil over alternative plans and pressure mounts on the
Democrat-led Senate to forge a remedy.
