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January 14, 2013 at 09:29 AM
President Barack Obama dispelled any doubt as to whether the fiscal fight over government spending is going to be bare-knuckled when he laid responsibility for failure to lift America’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling squarely at the feet of Republicans in Congress.
Speaking at his final press conference of his first term on Monday, the president said: “Republicans in Congress have two choices here: They can act responsibly and pay America’s bills or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy.”
An analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center forecasts the Treasury will run out of the money it needs to pay all its bills some time in the latter half of February.
Following the president’s press conference, House Speaker John Boehner issued a statement implying a clean lifting of the debt ceiling was not likely to be forthcoming:
“The American people do not support raising the debt ceiling without reducing government spending at the same time…The House will do its job and pass responsible legislation that controls spending, meets our nation’s obligations and keeps the government running.”
Monday’s rhetorical skirmish came 11 days after the president signed legislation averting the fiscal cliff fight that gripped the nation at the end of 2012.
A recent Pew Research poll determined that the president was the clear political winner in wrangling over that deal, with Republicans getting most of the blame for their negotiation stance.
But a new analysis of the final legislation, published Monday by Tax Notes, suggests the American people were the biggest losers because deficits are set to actually increase rather than decrease.
The analysis, by David Cay Johnston, a law professor who previously received the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of tax policy for The New York Times, finds that “federal deficits will continue at much larger levels than if Congress had done nothing and simply let the temporary George W. Bush income tax cuts end.”
