A hint of how lawmakers will respond is expected to come as soon as tomorrow. Speaker John Boehner plans to hold a vote in the Republican-controlled House on his two-step approach that would cut spending by $1.2 trillion and allow the government to keep borrowing money for another seven or eight months.
It would also establish a complicated system to allow the debt limit to again be extended with a later vote, as long as a bipartisan commission can find nearly $1.8 trillion in additional cuts to the deficit’s growth.
Obama said such a short-term approach was dangerous, imperiling markets and the US credit rating while guaranteeing the nation would face another crisis in a few months.
Obama targeted conservative Republicans in the House, blaming them for blocking a balanced deal he and Boehner had been working on by insisting on a cuts-only approach and accusing them of protecting only the interests of the richest Americans. In an attempt to isolate the Republicans backed by the Tea Party movement, Obama made an unusual appeal: Americans who agree with him should call and pressure their local lawmaker.
Although Obama had said he will veto any legislation that does not extend the debt limit through 2012, he did not explicitly repeat that vow last night.
Continuing the high-stakes battle for public opinion, Boehner delivered a nationally televised address just moments after Obama spoke.
“The president has said we need a balanced approach, which in Washington means, ‘We spend more, you pay more,’ ’’ Boehner said during his 5-minute address from Capitol Hill.
In the Senate, majority leader Harry Reid planned to move forward, perhaps as early as Thursday, with his own legislation in his Democrat-controlled chamber that would cut spending by $2.7 trillion and allow the nation’s debt to increase for about 17 months.
