WASHINGTON—The GOP leadership of the House of Representatives on Thursday, July 28, decided to postpone a vote on House Speaker John Boehner’s debt-reduction plan, as they continued to round up support to obtain the 217 votes needed to pass the plan.
In a Thursday news conference, Speaker Boehner pleaded with his colleagues to support his two-stage debt-reduction plan.
“For the sake of jobs, for the sake of our country, I’m asking the representatives in the House in a bipartisan way and asking my colleagues in the Senate: let’s pass this bill and end this crisis,” said Boehner.
The vote had originally been expected to take place around 6 p.m., a few hours after the financial markets had closed. Instead, in the midst of debate over the plan, the chair on the House floor announced suddenly that the chamber would shift gears and address the naming of a post office in Peoria, Ill., a far less controversial issue.
Speaker Boehner’s debt-reduction plan would make about $915 billion in cuts to federal spending over the next 10 years, while raising the debt ceiling by $1 trillion, which would force Congress to deal with another debt ceiling vote by the end of the year.
The vote over Boehner’s plan sets up an impending showdown between the House and the Senate over the debt limit. The Democratic Senate leadership has vowed to kill the bill in the upper chamber if it passes the House.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is currently gathering support for his own debt plan, which would reduce federal spending by $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years and contains a debt ceiling increase that would last through the end of 2012. The plan would need 60 votes in order to pass the Senate, which would require the support of at least a few Republicans.
The White House, which is increasingly becoming a spectator rather than a player within the debt-ceiling debate, also voiced its disapproval of Boehner’s debt plan. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during Thursday’s White House press briefing that Boehner’s plan is unacceptable because it would force a second gut-wrenching debate over debt limit a few months from now, forcing uncertainty onto the economy.
“Our objection is to any proposal that puts us through this three-ring circus again in any short period of time, because it’s already had significant negative impact on the economy, and it will only have even more and more severe negative impact on the economy,” said Carney.
“It ain’t going anywhere in the United States Senate,” the press secretary went on to add.
Also on Thursday, the executives of 14 of America’s largest financial institutions, including the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Allstate Insurance Company, among others, wrote a letter urging the White House and the Congress to work quickly to raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid the severe consequences of a potential sovereign default.
“The consequences of inaction—for our economy, the already struggling job market, the financial circumstances of American businesses and families, and for America’s global economic leadership—would be very grave,” they wrote. “A default on our nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence—raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets—and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation’s already difficult economic circumstances.”
“Our objection is to any proposal that puts us through this three-ring circus again in any short period of time, because it’s already had significant negative impact on the economy, and it will only have even more and more severe negative impact on the economy,” said Carney.
“It ain’t going anywhere in the United States Senate,” the press secretary went on to add.
Also on Thursday, the executives of 14 of America’s largest financial institutions, including the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Allstate Insurance Company, among others, wrote a letter urging the White House and the Congress to work quickly to raise the debt ceiling in order to avoid the severe consequences of a potential sovereign default.
“The consequences of inaction—for our economy, the already struggling job market, the financial circumstances of American businesses and families, and for America’s global economic leadership—would be very grave,” they wrote. “A default on our nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence—raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets—and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation’s already difficult economic circumstances.”
