Boehner says ready to cut budget deal today

Reuters/Yahoo ^ | 5/16/11

[markomalley]

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Sunday said he is ready to cut a deal on raising the debt limit if only President Barack Obama would get serious about spending cuts.

Obama warned that congressional failure to raise the debt limit could lead to a worse financial crisis than 2008-09 and urged that debate stay separate from spending cuts.

Both sides stuck to their well-staked out positions, showing little evidence of movement.

Boehner and fellow Republicans warned of dire consequences to the economy if the debt limit is not linked to spending cuts and deficit reduction.

"I'm ready to cut the deal today. You know, we don't have to wait until the 11th hour," Boehner said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

He questioned whether Obama was serious about deficit reduction. "He's talking about it. But I'm not seeing real action yet," Boehner said.

The Treasury Department is expected to hit its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit on Monday but says it can stave off default until August 2 by drawing on other sources of money to pay its bills. That timetable has created a sense in Washington that any political deal may be far off.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have warned that failure to raise the debt limit could hamper the fragile U.S. economy, which is making a slow and painful recovery from the 2007-2009 downturn, with a 9 percent unemployment rate.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Boner is a bald-faced LIAR and a WIMP.

We are screwed as long as he is in power.

[EternalVigilance]

[Teacher317]

Far better to simply divide $1.6 Trillion by 155,500,000 taxpayers... which makes about $10,289 per person... PER YEAR... added to "our" debt.

Then there's the overall debt of $14.3 Trillion (thanks to the new and meaningless "ceiling"), divided by those 155,500,000 taxpayers, for about $91,961 each.

"The day your child starts his first job, he is saddled with the responsibility for $91,963 in debt that our dear Leaders have already (very inefficiently) overspent on their behalf (and with virtually no benefit to them)."

THIS is the stat that the GOP should be mentioning on a daily basis during the budget debates.

Using your chart simply encourages the class envy that the Left adores. The bottom 50% virtually won't care about $555, and will love the idea of hitting the wealthy with nearly $400,000 in annual penalties. It also ignores the overall deficit, which is what is making the headlines this month.

[DuncanWaring]

Our cities will be bombed out ruins, half of our young men will be dead, our indutries will be in shambles, our money worthless, our leaders on trial for war crimes and the Russians will control a third of our territory?

1. You're confusing Weimar Germany and Nazi Germany.
2. Have you seen Detroit recently?

[Pan_Yan]

Drat! That’s what happens when I post in elevators while running around. Fact check and spell check go out the window.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks sickoflibs. Genitals, meet vise.