During a press conference in the White House , President Barack Obama warned Congressional Republicans not to hold the debt ceiling limit hostage in order to secure concessions on spending cuts from the White House. He spelled out what not increasing the debt limit would mean, and said clearly that the GOP in Congress "will not collect a ransom" from the president by holding the debt ceiling hostage
President Obama issues a strong warning to Republicans over the US debt ceiling.
President
Barack Obama demanded that Congress quickly raise the US federal debt
limit and warned that he will not allow the Republican opposition to
"collect a ransom for crashing the US economy," as he set out a tough
negotiating position on an issue that threatens to shut down the
American government.
Mr Obama displayed the get-tough stance toward Congress a week before he is sworn in for a second term.
Democratic
critics of the president in his first term had voiced serious
reservations about his willingness to give ground to Republicans on the
debt ceiling issue two years ago, after a huge partisan fight resulted
in an unprecedented downgrading of America's credit rating and left in
place across-the-board tax cuts established during the George W. Bush
administration.
This time around, President Obama said Republicans
who want to dramatically cut spending in return for raising US borrowing
limits "will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the
economy."
"The full faith and credit of the United States of America
is not a bargaining chip. And they better decide quickly because time is
running short," Mr Obama declared, insisting, "We are not a deadbeat
nation."
No comments:
Post a Comment