House Republicans will vote next week on a bill that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling for three months and attach a provision that would stop pay for members of Congress if the Senate doesn’t pass a budget, GOP officials said Friday.
It’s an attempt to force the Senate to lay out a spending plan, but is sure to go nowhere in the Democratic controlled upper chamber.
This is not a final solution to the debt ceiling battle, or anything close. Lifting the nation’s borrowing cap, which must be done by the end of February or March, will be a lengthy battle between House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House.
This strategy — trying to shift blame to the Senate — is a tried and true House GOP tactic. And it also falls in line with a new mantra leadership has been trying to instill in its membership: we do not control Washington, and cannot force the president’s hand.
But it does represent a slight change of strategy for House Speaker John Boehner. In the past, he has tried to attach targeted spending cuts that matched the amount the debt ceiling would be increased– a principal he first laid out in 2011. But unlike 2011, President Barack Obama says he will not negotiate to lift the nation’s borrowing cap.
“A long-term increase in the debt limit that is not preceded by meaningful and responsible reductions in government spending might avert a default, but it would also invite a downgrade of our nation’s credit that damages our economy, hurts families and small businesses, and destroys jobs,” Boehner told fellow House Republicans, according to excerpts released by his office.
If anything, the tactic would put front and center the Democratic Senate’s resistance to lay out its spending priorities. They haven’t passed a budget in three years.
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Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:09 pm
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