Boehner Tells GOP He Will Unveil New Debt Strategy [Short-Term Debt Extension]

Washington Post ^ | July 22, 2011

[Steelfish]

Boehner Tells GOP He Will Unveil New Debt Strategy

By Lori Montgomery, Paul Kane and Renae Merle

July 23 House Speaker John A. Boehner told his troops Saturday that he hopes to roll out a two-step strategy within the next 24 hours for raising the federal debt ceiling to avoid roiling Asian financial markets when they open Sunday, according to several participants in the conference call.

In the call with his House GOP colleagues, Boehner (Ohio) said he still hopes to slice as much as $4 trillion out of the federal budget over the next decade, despite the collapse of talks with President Obama on Friday over a bipartisan “grand bargain” to restrain the nation’s debt.

Top Republican aides said Boehner envisions a short-term extension of the debt limit that would include spending cuts that meet or exceed the debt limit increase. That would be paired with a strategy for finding additional savings. Options include a new super committee of the sort proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). Another option would be to tell existing legislative committees to make policy changes over the next few months aimed at meeting the savings targets.

In the call, Boehner stressed that the path forward would be a new plan, not a proposal offered earlier this month by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to authorize Obama to raise the debt limit on his own, without explicit congressional approval.

Freshman Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) confirmed that Boehner was open to a short-term deal that would allow more time to solve the problem, but added that Republican leaders remain worried that even a temporary lift of the government’s borrowing authority would fail on the House floor.

[LS]

I think he’s doing a damn good job. He’s held the line entirely (so far) on no new taxes; despite immense pressure, he hasn’t buckled to the “raise the debt ceiling” talk without offsetting CUTS; and he has Obama and the Dems on total defense. There are stories now circulating that the left is up in arms because Obama can’t get anything done with him! Under the circumstances, I don’t see how anyone could do much more.

[Cheetahcat]

“I think he’s doing a damn good job. He’s held the line entirely (so far) on no new taxes; despite immense pressure, he hasn’t buckled to the “raise the debt ceiling” talk without offsetting CUTS; and he has Obama and the Dems on total defense. There are stories now circulating that the left is up in arms because Obama can’t get anything done with him! Under the circumstances, I don’t see how anyone could do much more.”

Really ?why is there a trillion in new tax revenue in there and the cuts are over 10 years? another Joke! BTW he folded on the CR in case you did not notice.

These are NOT normal times,the very life of our country is at stake here and I consider that more important than ANYTHING Else,the guy has been in Washington way too long and corrupted!