Politics
Obama urges Congress to help small businesses
Romney’s critique ignored a significant reason for the debt: a series of Bush-era tax cuts that the former Massachusetts governor wants to follow with even lower rates. And Romney’s own promises to slash domestic spending aren’t backed by specifics.
The Treasury Department says the government will hit its borrowing limit later in the year but can use accounting maneuvers to extend the deadline for congressional action to lift the debt cap into early next year. And Boehner suggested Tuesday that Congress may take “a series of stopgap” debt measure measures before an acceptable budget pact can be passed.
The same could be true for a host of other unfinished business that had been expected to file up in a postelection lame-duck session, including extending expiring tax cuts and averting automatic spending cuts at the Pentagon and domestic agencies. But Capitol Hill insiders like Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and top panel Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland predict lawmakers will probably craft short-term fixes and punt everything to the next Congress and whoever occupies the White House next year.
Last year, Congress and Obama, with Boehner playing a lead role, agreed on a 10-year, US$2 trillion-plus package of spending cuts the coming decade. The measure paired caps on domestic agency operating budgets with the promise of US$1.2 trillion in further deficit cuts though a deficit supercommittee.
But the supercommittee’s failure to reach a deal has forced a scheduled painful round of automatic spending cuts at the Pentagon and other Cabinet agencies next year, along with a 2 percent cut to Medicare providers. Lawmakers are already trying to unwind those cuts, which take effect in January.
Last year’s debt showdown resulted in a downgrade of the U.S. government’s credit rating.
The White House and Boehner’s office described Wednesday’s rare bipartisan gathering as cordial. Also at the meeting was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and two Democratic lawmakers: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
