President Obama wants a long term fix to lifting the nation's debt ceiling, but would sign a short term fix offered by Republicans, spokesman Jay Carney said.
"If it reaches the president's desk, he would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law," Carney said.
Still, Carney said Obama wants a longer fix and an end to annual fights over lifting the debt ceiling because "they're so unhelpful to economic growth, they're so unhelpful to the middle class, they create terrible uncertainty to our businesses...It's terrible for the economy, and it seems also to be bad politics."
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives, hoping to avert another politically costly showdown with Obama, last week said they'd vote this week to increase the debt ceiling enough to cover three months of additional borrowing to pay the government's bills. Some Republicans had threatened to shut down the government before raising the debt ceiling.
Carney called the move "significant," adding, "House Republicans made a decision to back away from the kind of brinkmanship that was very concerning to the markets, very concerning to business, very concerning to the American people."
The ship is still slowly but gradually sinking. Democrats want to bail faster. Republicans want to put steerage class into the water. I suggest that those aboard step onto the iceberg, and while we put a patch in place to plug the leak. That is, pay the national debt with phony money, not applied with pay day lenders, since much of it is borrowed from ourselves and we'd benefit, despite the inflation. Since most dollars are held outside the U.S., those who've profited from our import tax sheltering share our pain.
Posted by: Valen Smith | February 13, 2013 at 02:29 AM