John
01-06-2011, 07:11 PM
Newly empowered US Republicans faced stiff early challenges Thursday as President Barack Obama pressed them to raise the US debt limit and his Democratic Senate allies vowed to defend his policies.
One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked lawmakers to let the US government to borrow more money, the opening shot in a political war over the giant US debt.
Geithner warned in a letter to senior members of Congress that failure to raise the debt ceiling from 14.29 trillion dollars could prompt a US default as soon as this March, with "catastrophic economic consequences."
"Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States," he said.
A default, he said would "lead to the loss of millions of American jobs," would constitute a tax on citizens by raising borrowing costs and could have a worse economic impact than the global economic meltdown of 2008.
Republican US House Speaker John Boehner responded with wary support for raising the US debt limit, saying "America cannot default" on what it owes, but insisted on deep spending cuts as well and demanded Democratic support.
"While America cannot default on its debt, we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ourselves deeper into this hole, and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren," Boehner said in a statement.
Leading Democrats did not immediately react.
Geithner's request, although expected, came earlier than many observers had anticipated, challenging Republicans who had hoped to put off that debate until after votes on slashing government spending to please their core supporters.
And the request was expected to get a chilly welcome from newly elected Republicans drawn from the ranks of archconservative "Tea Party" activists dead set on slashing spending and, in many cases, opposed to raising the debt limit.
Republicans were also struggling to beat back charges they were breaking their campaign promises for deep spending cuts, slashing the deficit, and bringing new transparency to the divided US Congress.
Top Republicans abandoned their vow to slashing 100 billion dollars in government their first year in office, a figure drawn from their signal election campaign "Pledge to America."
And Democrats hammered away at Republican plans to target Obama's signature health care overhaul with a symbolic repeal vote next week -- their victory in the House as certain as their defeat in the Democratic-held Senate.
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned in an interview with ABC television that there would be a political price to pay if the Senate "wants to be the cul-de-sac and let legislation just fester and die."
Democrats pointed to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate showing the legislation could actually some 143 billion over its first ten years, and potentially one trillion dollars the decade after that.
"It's been less than 24 hours since Republicans took over the majority in the House and they've already unveiled a plan to balloon the federal deficit by one trillion dollars," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
"CBO is entitled to their opinion," said Republican House Speaker John Boehner. "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit."
His comments came Democrats were expected to join Republicans to pass a bill to slice five percent from House expenses, a 35-million-dollar drop in the roughly 3.6-trillion-dollar bucket of annual US government outlays.
And House members also read aloud from the US Constitution -- but omitted sections later amended, such as the original language defining black slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning congressional seats.
Both were symbolic moves meant to please the "Tea Party," which Republicans hope will be a potent force when Obama seeks reelection in 2012 and control of the US Senate could change.
Source - Yahoo.
One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked lawmakers to let the US government to borrow more money, the opening shot in a political war over the giant US debt.
Geithner warned in a letter to senior members of Congress that failure to raise the debt ceiling from 14.29 trillion dollars could prompt a US default as soon as this March, with "catastrophic economic consequences."
"Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States," he said.
A default, he said would "lead to the loss of millions of American jobs," would constitute a tax on citizens by raising borrowing costs and could have a worse economic impact than the global economic meltdown of 2008.
Republican US House Speaker John Boehner responded with wary support for raising the US debt limit, saying "America cannot default" on what it owes, but insisted on deep spending cuts as well and demanded Democratic support.
"While America cannot default on its debt, we also cannot continue to borrow recklessly, dig ourselves deeper into this hole, and mortgage the future of our children and grandchildren," Boehner said in a statement.
Leading Democrats did not immediately react.
Geithner's request, although expected, came earlier than many observers had anticipated, challenging Republicans who had hoped to put off that debate until after votes on slashing government spending to please their core supporters.
And the request was expected to get a chilly welcome from newly elected Republicans drawn from the ranks of archconservative "Tea Party" activists dead set on slashing spending and, in many cases, opposed to raising the debt limit.
Republicans were also struggling to beat back charges they were breaking their campaign promises for deep spending cuts, slashing the deficit, and bringing new transparency to the divided US Congress.
Top Republicans abandoned their vow to slashing 100 billion dollars in government their first year in office, a figure drawn from their signal election campaign "Pledge to America."
And Democrats hammered away at Republican plans to target Obama's signature health care overhaul with a symbolic repeal vote next week -- their victory in the House as certain as their defeat in the Democratic-held Senate.
Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor warned in an interview with ABC television that there would be a political price to pay if the Senate "wants to be the cul-de-sac and let legislation just fester and die."
Democrats pointed to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate showing the legislation could actually some 143 billion over its first ten years, and potentially one trillion dollars the decade after that.
"It's been less than 24 hours since Republicans took over the majority in the House and they've already unveiled a plan to balloon the federal deficit by one trillion dollars," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
"CBO is entitled to their opinion," said Republican House Speaker John Boehner. "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit."
His comments came Democrats were expected to join Republicans to pass a bill to slice five percent from House expenses, a 35-million-dollar drop in the roughly 3.6-trillion-dollar bucket of annual US government outlays.
And House members also read aloud from the US Constitution -- but omitted sections later amended, such as the original language defining black slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of apportioning congressional seats.
Both were symbolic moves meant to please the "Tea Party," which Republicans hope will be a potent force when Obama seeks reelection in 2012 and control of the US Senate could change.
Source - Yahoo.