John Boehner Set to Call Obama’s Bluff: May Push Short Term Deal to Avoid Crisis

Speaker Boehner is reportedly set to call Obama’s bluff.
— Will introduce a short term deal to avoid crisis.

Just last week Obama said he would not sign a short term debt deal.

Obama set all kinds of records for being the biggest spender in history since he came into office only two and a half years ago.

Huffington Post reported:

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is set to call the Democratic Party’s bluff on the debt ceiling. The Ohio Republican, in a briefing with his conference on Saturday, announced that he would press for a short-term deal, with major spending cuts paired with longer-term deficit-reduction strategies, as a way around the current impasse.

That strategy puts the speaker directly at odds with the White House and allied Democrats, who have insisted for weeks that they would not support a short-term extension of the debt ceiling. The president went so far as to dare House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to test his opposition to a temporary deal during a tense meeting more than a week ago.

Whether that rigidity will fade as the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling nears is a big gamble on Boehner’s part.

A Democratic official familiar with negotiations said that at a 50-minute-long White House meeting on Saturday morning the president “said he would not accept a short term extension, because it could lead to a downgrade” of the United States’ credit rating. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) added that her caucus would not vote for a short-term deal.

“For the first time ever,” the source said, “[Senate Majority Leader Harry] Reid was less committed.”

Meanwhile the liberal media continues to report that Republicans are playing politics even though Obama still has no plan, attacks Republicans and then lectures about civility, and is trying to talk the markets into a panic.

Obama acts like he wants a default.

UPDATE: House Republicans are set to release their two-part plan tomorrow.
The Examiner reported:

House Republicans are finishing work on a new proposal to resolve the standoff over the debt ceiling. The proposal, set to be finished and crafted into the form of a bill by Sunday, will be in two parts. The first will combine a short-term increase in the debt ceiling with spending cuts. The second will lay the groundwork for a longer-term increase in the debt ceiling coupled with far-reaching deficit reduction.

“Senator Reid said on Friday that he is going to wait for us to move,” says a well-informed GOP House aide. “So we’ll move.” Another well-informed aide confirmed the basic outline of what’s happening.

Staff of the House Rules Committee is involved in the work, which is an indication that the process is nearing completion. Before any bill can be considered on the House floor, the Rules Committee must first pass a rule setting out the process for its consideration. Once the proposal is finished, it would likely be posted on the Rules Committee website, probably no later than Monday, so the committee could meet to consider it on Tuesday and it could be on the House floor by Wednesday.

Work on the new proposal was underway before negotiations with the White House blew up on Friday. Sources say the plan was being created last week, even as the House leadership devoted considerable time to passing the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” proposal. Once the Senate Democratic leadership blocked “Cut, Cap, and Balance,” House leaders stepped up work on the new proposal. Right now, the new direction is believed to be the only way forward. “McConnell-Reid is just not a viable option in the House,” the aide says, referring to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s complicated proposal to allow the president to increase the debt ceiling.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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