Boehner: Obama Has Given Up Governing

Speaker of the House John Boehner accused President Obama of having “thrown in the towel” on governing to turn his focus to campaigning for reelection at a Washington Ideas Forum Thursday.

“Mr. President, why have you given up on the country and decided to campaign full-time?” Boehner asked.

Disappointed with the summer’s negotiations on the debt ceiling limit, the Speaker said he continues to be willing to “sit down with the President any day, any time to seek common ground” and even put revenues on the table as long as the President agrees to address entitlement reform.

“It takes two to tango, and the President never said ‘yes,’” Boehner said.

A couple topics where Boehner and Obama can agree on, however, are Afghanistan and the Chinese currency manipulation bill.

Boehner reinforced his argument against passing the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Bill that would punish countries like China for manipulating their currency, something he says the President agrees with.

“For the Congress to pass legislation to force the Chinese to do what is arguably very difficult to do I think is wrong, is dangerous and could start a trade war,” he said.

The Speaker is also supportive of Obama’s decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan saying Obama “has done just fine” in continuing to take on the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

As for the super committee he helped create to find $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, Boehner said he is “firmly committed to ensuring that the [committee] come to an outcome,” emphasizing that no one wants automatic spending cuts to happen.

Boehner also commented on the Republican presidential campaign supporting Sarah Palin’s decision not to run for president in 2012. 

“She made the right decision for herself,” he said, but added that he hopes Palin will campaign for other Republican candidates.

House Democrats Support Executive Order On Debt Limit

Vanessa Remmers

House Democratic leaders are prepared to stand behind President Obama if he issues an executive order to increase the debt ceiling in the event Congress fails to reach a debt limit deal before August 2.

“House Republicans have failed to govern, failure is not an option for our country, and therefore, you leave it to the President to take whatever action is within his power,” Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) said.

In his push for an executive order, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) drew from President Truman’s executive order in the 1940’s.

“[An executive order to raise the debt ceiling] will bring calm to the American people and stability to financial markets,” Clyburn said.

Both House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Clyburn said the President should veto a short-term debt ceiling increase with the same pen that he signs an executive order, even though both recognized the President’s firm stance on the issue.

In regard to House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) budget plan, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) chuckled at its potential support and rumored uptick in momentum.

“The real question is how many Republicans would vote for it,” Larson said.

The final result of the budget battle remains uncertain as Larson admitted that more Democrats would vote for the Reid plan, but placed all predictions on conditional terms.

Boehner Blames Obama, Senate Dems For Weak Job Growth

By Philip Bunnell

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) took President Obama and Senate Democrats to task Friday following the release of new labor data that shows rising to 9.2 % and few new jobs.  

The Republican leader was quick to point to the several “job creating bills” that passed the GOP controlled House but were stalled by the Democrat controlled Senate.

In an appearance before reporters Friday morning, Boehner and other Republican Representatives pointed to several bills that they claimed could create “millions of jobs.”  Bills to end the drilling moratorium and rid the private sector of government imposed regulations, the House Republicans said, would drastically reduce unemployment.

With regards to the debt ceiling negotiations, Boehner described the situation as “urgent, even dire.”  However, when pressed over how he could “sweeten the deal,” to make the entitlement cuts more palatable to Democrats, the Speaker simply joked “if you have any suggestions, pass them on.”

Boehner and other Republicans will meet with the President again on Sunday to try and reach a deal on the debt ceiling.

Toomey Downplays Debt Limit Worries

By Philip Bunnell

Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said Wednesday that the U.S. won’t necessarily experience an economic catastrophe should Congress fail to authorize an increase in the nation’s debt limit this summer.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute, the Pennsylvania Republican downplayed the impacts of not raising the borrowing limit by August 2, the date by which Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told lawmakers they must act.

“I want to say categorically that is absolutely false. Failure to raise the debt limit upon the deadline submitted by the Treasury Secretary does not equate to a default on our debt at all,” Toomey said.

On Monday, Geithner announced that the federal government had reached its $14.29 trillion limit, but said that he would maneuver to buy Congress more time to reach agreement on a vote. Lawmakers are currently at an impasse over how to procede down the road of raising the limit, with Democrats calling for a “clean” authorization and Republicans demanding that spending cuts and reforms be included.

Toomey, who introduced a bill last month that would require Treasury to solely make payments on principal debt and interest should Congress fail to pass a vote, said that like most Republicans, he would only be willing to support more borrowing if it came with strings attached. He warned that simply raising the limit year after year is not a “permanent solution.” Toomey added that no Republicans would support a bill that contained tax increases as a means of generating revenue to pay down the deficit.

Treasury officials have indicated that the current limit would need to be increased by roughly $1.9 trillion.

On spending, Toomey defended the House-passed 2012 budget plan written by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), which aims to reduce the deficit by cutting trillions in spending and overhauling Medicare and Medicaid. Toomey said he’ll vote for the Ryan plan if and when it comes to the Senate floor, calling it “very, very thoughtful, serious, [and] courageous.” He added that it is “the only idea… that actually does save Medicare.”