Democratic cracks open in debt-limit fight
For the past several weeks, Senate Democrats and the White House have shown a remarkable amount of unity in the controversial fight surrounding the debt ceiling.
Then came shutdown Day Seven.
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Just as top Senate Democrats began to lay the groundwork to raise the U.S. government’s borrowing limit through 2014, senior White House officials refused to rule out a short-term increase. The divergent messages caused major heartburn for top Senate Democrats and gave Republicans fresh hope that they could defeat a yearlong debt ceiling hike and win concessions from President Barack Obama in this fall’s fiscal battles.
By late Monday afternoon, nervous Senate Democrats had reached out to the White House to ensure they were on the same page — and the concerns on Capitol Hill seemed to be alleviated after senior administration officials downplayed the idea of a short-term increase.
But the incident underscored the fear among the congressional Democratic leadership that President Barack Obama may eventually back away from the no-negotiation stance he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have voiced for weeks in order to avoid a first-ever default. And it raised questions about Senate Democrats’ next step in the debt ceiling debate if Republicans successfully filibuster a bill to increase the $16.7 trillion national debt ceiling.
Democrats began to raise concerns privately that the White House appeared to be softening its iron-clad position.
“This is very disconcerting to us,” a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide said on condition of anonymity, referring to comments by the president’s top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, at POLITICO’S Playbook Breakfast on Monday. “All along, the president and White House have been firm on what they want, both in a [government funding bill] and debt ceiling. So we’re concerned about this.”
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, “What does short-term buy us? That buys us Thanksgiving in Washington.”
The stakes — both political and economic — in the government funding and debt ceiling fights couldn’t be higher. Obama and Hill Democrats, unwilling to relive the budget and debt fights of 2011-12, have warned Republicans for months that they wanted “clean” government funding and debt ceiling bills.
Yet House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), under heavy pressure from hard-line GOP conservatives, refused to put a funding resolution on the House floor without anti-Obamacare language. When Reid and his fellow Democrats refused to accept it, the now weeklong government shutdown ensued. That shutdown shows no sign of ending soon.
The debt-ceiling fight is lining up the same way. Boehner has already said he will not put a clean debt ceiling bill on the House floor. In fact, there’s no current plan for House Republicans to move on anything debt-related. Obama and Reid have so far refused to accept anything other than a long-term debt bill with no preconditions.
The Democratic discord started Monday morning when Sperling said the White House would be open to a two- to three-week increase to avert the Oct. 17 deadline when the U.S. government may begin to default on its $16.7 trillion debt. The comments were a shift from the position the White House took in the 2011 debt fight, when it demanded that Congress extend the debt ceiling through the 2012 elections.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/democrats-debt-limit-fight-97955.html#ixzz2h8cwSDj8
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