Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Obama 'refuses to allow' debt ceiling fight, meets with Boehner

House speaker's office calls the lunch 'friendly.'

President Obama told House Speaker John Boehner and other congressional leaders on Wednesday that he "refuses to allow" a repeat of last year's fight over raising the debt ceiling, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

"The topic did come up. The speaker raised it, and the president made clear that we're not going to repeat the debt-ceiling debacle of last August," Carney said.

"The speaker said, 'Are you saying we should pass a clean debt-ceiling bill?'" Carney said, by way of clarifying Boehner's statement.

The president favors a balanced approach to deficit reduction, Carney said--the same priorities he brought into last year's round of negotiations.

Obama met for lunch with House and Senate leaders to discuss his "To Do list" of legislative priorities for job creation. During the meeting, the president also brought up the need to prevent the interest rates on student loans from doubling this summer, Carney said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid used the meeting on Wednesday to emphasize his view that sequestration will occur if Republicans to do not agree to new tax revenue, a Democratic Senate aide said in a readout of the meeting.

“Senator Reid made clear his view that absent a balanced agreement that pairs smart spending cuts with revenue measures asking millionaires to pay their fair share, the debt will be dealt with through the sequester, which will cut another $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending in a fair manner—half from military spending and half from domestic spending,” the aide said.

Reid also called Boehner’s assertion that the debt ceiling should not increase without equivalent spending cuts premature, the aide said: “Since no debt-ceiling increase will likely be necessary until after the end of the year, Senator Reid conveyed his view that any discussion of the debt ceiling is premature until after the sequester takes effect or is replaced with a balanced agreement, and after Congress deals with the expiring Bush tax cuts."

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said McConnell in the meeting urged Democrats to compromise with the GOP on legislation to stop student interest rates from doubling in July. “In a cordial lunch meeting, Senator McConnell pressed the president and the Democrat leadership on the need to produce a bill to prevent the student-loan interest-rate increase that can actually pass the Senate."

“We all agreed that rates shouldn’t go up this year and that we need to resolve the differences and pass legislation together,” McConnell said in a statement.

In the meeting, McConnell cited a lengthy list of bills that Congress has passed in the last year “when poison pills were removed and Republicans were included in the debate,” Stewart said. “And he believes that there is time before the election for even more bipartisan accomplishments.”

Boehner’s office called the lunch “friendly.”

A Boehner aide said Obama began the meeting by laying out “some of his policy goals, including his To Do list.

“The bulk of the meeting was spent discussing other issues, including the next debt-limit increase and the looming expiration of current tax rates,” the aide said. “In a discussion of the debt limit, the speaker—who has warned that the growing debt is hurting U.S. job creation -- asked the president if he is proposing that Congress pass an increase that does not include any spending cuts to help reduce the deficit.”

According the aide, “the president said, ‘yes.’ The speaker told the president, ‘as long as I’m around here, I’m not going to allow a debt-ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt.’ The speaker also asked the president for his plans to deal with the largest tax increase in American history, which will mean tax hikes on small businesses, and the devastating cuts poised to hit our military, both scheduled to take effect at the end of the year.”

Boehner also asked Obama to approve the controversial Keystone pipeline energy project, his office said, and asked Obama to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to provide the information sought by congressional investigators on the "Fast and Furious" operation. “The speaker was very pleased with the sandwiches served,” the aide said.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.