Oct. 9, 2013, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement in response to a Wall Street Journal oped by House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan urging entitlement reforms in exchange for increasing the $16.699 trillion debt ceiling:
“The House majority needs to stay focused on defunding Obamacare via the continuing resolution. The problem with attempting to use the debt ceiling to achieve anything is Obama’s threat to default if Congress does not increase it that makes negotiating on it next to impossible. Everyone has a wish list they’d like to see implemented, but to get a deal done, the first thing to do is to take Obama’s loaded gun off the table.
“To counter the default threat, House Republicans might consider talking about why a default is unnecessary when we take in $250 billion of revenue a month, more than enough to pay $35 billion of interest owed to creditors and the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. How existing debt could be refinanced up to the limit. They might consider attaching a version of their legislation, the ‘Full Faith and Credit Act’ to a debt ceiling increase to guarantee no future president ever again has the ability to threaten default to prevent Congress from exercising its constitutional power over the purse.
“In the meantime, Obama’s intransigent threat to default when there’s enough revenue to make debt service payments in order to avoid negotiating with the House majority is unreasonable and ignores the will of the American people that reelected House Republicans in 2012. Voters chose the House to serve as a check against the administration. And the power of the purse through the continuing resolution and debt ceiling are the only meaningful checks they can use. The House is not a rubber stamp.”
Attachments:
“Why is Obama threatening an unnecessary default?” By ALG senior editor Robert Romano, Oct. 9, 2013 at http://netrightdaily.com/2013/10/deadbeat-president/
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703)383-0880 or at media@algnews.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Nathan Mehrens.
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