Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) each laid down incompatible positions on the debt limit Tuesday, possibly setting the stage for another round of brinksmanship this fall over whether the federal government will default on its obligations.
?We are not negotiating on the debt ceiling,? Reid told reporters. ?The President has said this. I?ve said it. And I don?t know how many more times we need to say that.?
He was responding to a question about whether he?d consider GOP demands such as defunding Obamacare or significantly cutting spending in exchange for raising the debt limit.
Just hours earlier, Boehner put down an equally categorical marker.
?We?re not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending. It?s as simple as that,? he said. He floated the so-called ?Boehner rule? requiring dollar-for-dollar cuts, which Democrats acceded to in 2011 in order to raise the debt limit, as the right way to go.
Privately and publicly, White House officials insist that they won?t negotiate on the debt ceiling under any circumstances, and that it?s Congress? duty to make sure the United States continues to pay its bills. Burned by the failed deficit talks of 2011, senior Obama aides also don?t trust Boehner to deliver Republican votes even if he does want a deal. (A running joke in the White House is that Boehner couldn?t deliver a pizza.)
Boehner, in particular, faces huge challenges within his conference.
His leadership team backed down earlier this year in the face of Democrats? insistence that they won?t negotiate on the debt ceiling, convincing members to vote to increase temporarily the limit in exchange for forcing Senate Democrats to pass a budget. He now faces a conference full of vocal lawmakers who are demanding actual spending cuts and insist they won?t settle for anything less. Already aggrieved by the possibility of leadership violating the majority-of-the-majority principle on matters like immigration reform and the farm bill, they?re working to back Boehner into a corner.
Meanwhile, a significant faction of more moderate Senate Republicans, tired of going along with routine obstruction, are rising up against tea party conservatives and pushing for more cooperation with Democrats, be it on the budget, immigration or presidential nominees.
?I do think that some folks are starting to re-evaluate the consequence of giving a handful of very junior, very ideological Senators the unfettered ability to drive our side,? said an aide to a veteran Republican senator, speaking on condition of anonymity. ?I think we may have learned in the recent crisis that having the sheer volume of objections at the same time is not in our interests. It makes it harder to argue the high ground.?
All the while, Boehner has repeatedly insisted that default is not an option, leaving many Democrats to conclude that he?s bluffing by suggesting he won?t permit a debt limit increase. On Tuesday his spokesman Brendan Buck called on Democrats to compromise.
Sahil Kapur Sahil Kapur is a congressional reporter for TPM. He previously covered politics and public policy for numerous publications including The Guardian and The Huffington Post. He can be reached at sahil [at] talkingpointsmemo.com.
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