John Boehner is among about 20 Republicans heading
to the White House on Thursday afternoon
US Republicans have offered President Barack
Obama a short-term debt limit increase to stave
off default.
House Speaker John Boehner said they would do so in
exchange for wider negotiations with the White House
to end a government shutdown that took effect on 1
October.
Republicans will meet Mr Obama later on Thursday.
Officials have warned the US will risk default on 17
October if the nation's borrowing limit is not increased.
Mr Boehner said on Thursday: "What we want to do is
to offer the president today the ability to move a
temporary increase in the debt ceiling in agreement to
go to conference on the budget for his willingness to sit
down and discuss with us a way forward to reopen the
government."
A spokesman for Mr Boehner told reporters that the
deal on the table ahead of Thursday afternoon's
meeting was a "clean" increase of the debt limit, with
no additional policies attached.
But it would only last six weeks - until November 22.
On Wednesday, Mr Obama met House Democrats at
the White House and told them he would prefer a
longer-term increase of one year to the nation's $16.69
trillion (£10.47 trillion) debt ceiling.
But the president said he was willing to accept a short-
term rise in the borrowing cap to "give Boehner some
time to deal with the Tea Party wing of his party",
Representative Peter Welch told the Associated Press
news agency after the meeting.
Earlier, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a
congressional panel the US could not prioritise between
its payment obligations once borrowing was exhausted.
Mr Lew warned lawmakers the government could miss
pension and healthcare payments for the elderly as well
as military salaries.
And a missing payment on US debt would trigger a
potentially more profound financial crisis, he warned.
"This system was not designed to be turned off
selectively," Mr Lew told a Senate hearing. "It would be
chaos."
Comments
Post a Comment