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Republican: House Conservatives
Will Not Support McConnell Debt ‘Cop-Out’
Published July 17, 2011
House
conservatives will not support
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s backup plan to raise the
debt
ceiling, a leading House conservative told “Fox News Sunday,” calling
it a
“cop-out.”
Rep.
Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of
the Republican Study Committee, slammed a plan that is looking
increasingly
vital as deficit-reduction talks aimed at a “grand bargain” lose steam.
With
time running out to reach a deal and credit rating agencies warning the
U.S.
risks a credit downgrade, that backup plan would allow Congress to vote
on
incremental debt ceiling increases worth $2.5 trillion -- only in such
a way
that makes it easier for President Obama to win congressional
permission.
Jordan
said he’s not sure whether
there’s some combination of Republicans and Democrats that could get
behind
that plan and approve it. But he claimed his conservative House wing,
as well
as some Senate Republicans, will not be a part of any coalition.
“They’re
not going to support the
McConnell plan. I’m not going to support the McConnell plan,” he said,
pushing
instead a House plan to cut and cap federal spending while requiring a
balanced-budget amendment in exchange for a debt-ceiling increase.
“This is
just kicking the can down the road.”
Under
the McConnell plan, instead of
voting for the debt cap increase, Congress would vote on a
“disapproval”
resolution -- meaning that in order to block the president Congress
would need
to vote for the resolution, and then muster a two-thirds majority in
both
chambers to override a presidential veto.
The
proposal would presumably be tied
to more than $1 trillion in spending cuts, and make way for a new
budget-balancing commission.
But
some Republicans have doubts that
the split approach could yield the kind of deficit reduction they’re
looking
for. And while Democratic leaders say they’re willing to work with
McConnell on
the concept as a last resort, they say they don’t like the idea either.
“I’m
not a fan of the Mitch McConnell
deal,” Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., ranking Democrat on the House
Budget
Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” “It does punt it.”
Van
Hollen called the plan a
“political answer, not a real answer to the problem.”
Asked
whether he would support the
plan if it were the only way to raise the debt ceiling, he said: “I’m
working
very hard so that that’s not our only choice.”
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it at Foxnews
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