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| FILE - This Jan. 1, 2013 file photo shows House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walkig past reporters after a closed-door meeting meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. The GOP-controlled House will vote next week to permit the government to borrow more money to meet its obligations, a move aimed at heading off a market-rattling confrontation with President Barack Obama over the so-called debt limit. Full details aren’t settled yet, but the measure would give the government about three more months of borrowing authority beyond a deadline expected to hit as early as mid-February, a Republican official said Friday. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- House Republican leaders Friday offered President Barack Obama a
three-month reprieve to a looming, market-rattling debt crisis, backing
off demands that any immediate extension of the government's borrowing
authority be accompanied by stiff spending cuts.
The
retreat came with a caveat aimed at prodding Senate Democrats to pass a
budget after almost four years of failing to do so: a threat to cut off
the pay of lawmakers in either House or Senate if their chamber fails
to pass a budget this year. House Republicans have passed budgets for
two consecutive years.
The idea got a frosty
reception from House Democrats but a more measured response from the
White House and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Republicans
hadn't settled on full details, but the measure would give the
government about three more months of borrowing authority beyond a
deadline expected to hit as early as mid-February, No. 2 House
Republican Eric Cantor of Virginia said Friday.
The
legislation wouldn't require immediate spending cuts as earlier
promised by GOP leaders like Speaker John Boehner of Ohio. Instead, it's
aimed at forcing the Democratic-controlled Senate to join the House in
debating the federal budget.
"We are going to
pursue strategies that will obligate the Senate to finally join the
House in confronting the government's spending problem," Boehner told
GOP lawmakers at a retreat in Williamsburg, Va. "The principle is
simple: `no budget, no pay.'"
But the move ran
into opposition from House Democrats, including leader Nancy Pelosi of
California, who called it a gimmick because it would set up another
potential confrontation in just a few months. Votes from Democrats may
be needed to help pass the measure if GOP conservatives opposed to any
increase in the debt limit withhold their support.
"This
proposal does not relieve the uncertainty faced by small businesses,
the markets and the middle class," said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.
"This is a gimmick unworthy of the challenges we face and the national
debate we should be having. The message from the American people is
clear: no games, no default."
But Senate
Democrats and the White House were more cautious and sounded encouraged
that Republicans seemed to be beating a tactical retreat.
"We
are encouraged that there are signs that congressional Republicans may
back off their insistence on holding our economy hostage to extract
drastic cuts in Medicare, education and programs middle-class families
depend on," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in a statement.
"Congress must pay its bills and pass a clean debt-limit increase
without further delay."
"It is reassuring to
see Republicans beginning to back off their threat to hold our economy
hostage," said Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson. "If the House can pass a
clean debt-ceiling increase to avoid default and allow the United States
to meet its existing obligations, we will be happy to consider it."
But
in Washington-speak, a "clean" debt limit increase means a stand-alone
measure without additional items - like the "no budget, no pay" idea -
attached. Jentleson said Reid and his fellow Senate Democrats have yet
to decide how they'll respond to the measure.
The
"no budget, no pay" idea is backed by No Labels, a group started about
two years ago by both Democrats and Republicans in hopes of easing the
partisanship and gridlock that has engulfed Washington.
Sponsors in
Congress include Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev.
The
Democratic-controlled Senate passed a similar idea in 2011 when
unanimously adopting a measure to deny pay to members of Congress and
the president if the government shuts down for lack of an agency funding
bill. But top lawmakers like Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick
Leahy, D-Vt., have argued that the idea violates a provision of the
Constitution that says Congress can't change its pay until an election
has passed.
At the same time, while Democrats
like Pelosi and allies like Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland protest
the idea of a short-term debt increase in the government's $16.4
trillion debt cap, they orchestrated comparable short-term debt relief
when they controlled Congress in 2009.
GOP
leaders, meanwhile, have been grappling with how to gain leverage in
their battles with Obama over the budget. Boehner successfully won about
$2 trillion in spending cuts as a condition of increasing the
government's borrowing cap in 2011.
Obama,
however, was dealt a stronger hand by his re-election in November and
successfully pressed through a 10-year, $600 billion increase on
upper-bracket tax payers earlier this month.
Other
choke points remain, including sharp, across-the-board spending cuts
that would start to strike the Pentagon and domestic programs alike on
March 1 and the possibility of a partial government shutdown with the
expiration of a temporary budget measure on March 27.
Failing
to meet those deadlines would have far less serious consequences than
defaulting on U.S. obligations like payments to bondholders, Social
Security recipients and myriad other commitments when the government
confronts a cash crisis and can no longer borrow to make payments. That
could cause a meltdown in financial markets and would inflame voters
already disgusted with Congress.
Under
Congress' arcane budget procedures, a congressional budget resolution is
a nonbinding measure that tries to set parameters for future
legislation setting agency budgets and curbing federal benefit programs
like Medicare.
Boehner has previously invoked a
promise that any increase in the government's borrowing cap would be
matched, dollar for dollar, by spending cuts or "reforms" that could
include curbs on the long-term growth in retirement programs such as
Medicare. Friday's announcement did not repeat that specific promise.
"Before
there is any long-term debt limit increase, a budget should be passed
that cuts spending," Boehner said. "The Democratic-controlled Senate has
failed to pass a budget for four years. That is a shameful run that
needs to end, this year."
The measure picked
up support from key GOP conservatives, including the current and former
chairmen of the Republican Study Committee, a powerful group inside the
House GOP.
"In order to allow time for the
Senate to act, next week's bill will extend the debt limit for three
months," the Study Committee said Friday in a statement. "This is a
necessary first step as we work to halt the decline of America and puts
the focus where it belongs: on the Senate who has failed to do their
jobs to pass a budget for more than three years." The statement was
issued by RSC Chairman Steve Scalise, R-La., and former chairmen, Jim
Jordan, R-Ohio, Tom Price, R-Ga., and Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.
Obama's budget is due early next month but is expected to be released several weeks later.
