Round Two: Boehner, GOP Set Sights On Debt Limit

House Speaker John Boehner (R- Ohio) said Republicans “dragged a reluctant Senate and White House” into reaching a deal for funding the government through September, but now says the GOP will stand against the President’s wishes to increase the nation’s debt ceiling. 

“President Obama also wants a debt limit increase, but says spending cuts and budget reforms shouldn’t be attached to it,” Boehner said in a USA Today Op-Ed. “Americans will not stand for that. We must follow their will.”

Coming off a deal that essentially put another ‘W’ in the GOP’s win column, conservatives are now poised to have another battle on Capitol Hill after they’ve publicly vowed not to raise the debt limit unless they see genuine efforts to reduce the deficit.

At the Annual Prescott-Bush GOP Fundraiser in Stamford, Conn., Boehner said that there will not be an increase in the country’s debt limit “without something really, really big attached to it. 

The nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit will need tweaking on or before May 16, according to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. In a letter to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Geithner emphasized that Congress must act in the coming weeks to raise that number or otherwise face yet another fiscal crisis.