Boehner: Raise The Debt Limit, But Cut Spending

By Mario Trujillo

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hinted Thursday that a proposal to raise the debt limit will not pass the House without spending cuts and reforms attached to it.

“The American people have made clear that they are not going to tolerate an increase in the debt limit unless spending cuts and reforms are implemented,” Boehner said at a news conference Thursday. His comments seemingly put the spector of a government shutdown back on the table, despite recent GOP efforts to downplay that possibility.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and CBO Director Doug Elmendorf have all warned that not increasing the debt limit would have disastrous effects on the economy. 

 The Treasury Department expects the limit — currently set at $14.294 trillion — to be reached sometime between early-April and late-May. The last time it was raised was Feb. 12^th of last year.

Republicans would like Democrats to support a series of spending cuts included in a temporary funding resolution in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt cap.

During his press conference, Boehner also discussed entitlement refofrm. Using President Obama’s language, Boehner said it was time to have an “adult conversation” about the issue, which Republicans argue wasn’t adequately addressed in the President’s 2012 budget proposal.

“I have made it clear to the President, I’m ready to join him,” Boehner said. “I’m ready to have this conversation. I said it right to his face.”

In addition, Boehner clarified a quote of his from earlier in the week in which he replied “so be it” to a question of whether his spending cut proposals would lead to mass layoffs in the federal workforce.

“Listen,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to lose their job, whether they are a federal employee or not, but come on, we are broke.”

“We’ve got to make tough decisions.”