Republicans Say Higher U.S. Debt Limit Depends on Specific Spending Cuts
Senator Kent Conrad
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota.
Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The Democratic head of the Senate Budget Committee said he won’t vote for a long-term increase in the federal debt limit unless the Obama administration and congressional leaders of both parties agree to trillions of dollars in budget cuts.
Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota said today he will withhold his support for raising the debt limit unless the spending cuts approach the $4 trillion proposed last month by the chairmen of President Barack Obama’s debt commission.
“I want a plan adopted that deals with the long-term debt before I vote for any long-term extension of the debt,” he said in an interview. Conrad also said he wouldn’t object to a short- term increase in the debt limit while lawmakers work on a longer-term solution.
Republican leaders, who now control the U.S. House, said yesterday they will insist on government spending reductions as a condition to boosting the $14.29 trillion debt limit by March 31, the date requested by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The scope of Conrad’s requested cuts go beyond the Republican demands. And his remarks underscore growing bipartisan pressure to rein in the budget.
That pressure could aid efforts to keep alive the recommendations of debt panel chairmen Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles. The panel fell three votes short of the 14 needed to forward the plan to Congress for a vote.
Conrad said a group of senators are translating the debt- panel plan into legislative measures that could be put to a vote.
Geithner Letter
Geithner, in a letter to congressional leaders yesterday requesting the debt-limit vote, said the cap could be reached as soon as March 31 and “most likely” by May 16.
A default on government obligations by a failure to extend the borrowing authority would have “catastrophic consequences,” possibly worse than the 2008 financial crisis, said Geithner. He said Obama is committed to working with both parties to put the U.S. on a “fiscally responsible path.” The debt ceiling is the legal limit on government borrowing; the last increase was approved in January 2010.
Any increase must be “accompanied by meaningful action by the president and Congress to cut spending and the job-killing spending binge,” House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in a statement yesterday.
Conrad today called for a “summit” between Obama and congressional leaders to “just as the commission did, come up with a plan that deals with the debt.”
“I don’t expect that to be converted into legislative language and go through the process before we vote on the debt limit,” Conrad said. “But I’m not going to vote for a long- term extension of the debt without a plan that’s credible that has been agreed to by the leadership -- and that includes the president.”
Conrad’s comments echo a showdown last year when he and other lawmakers threatened to withhold their votes for a previous debt-ceiling increase. Their move led to Obama’s creation of the debt panel.
To contact the reporters on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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