GOP Takes Debt Limit Hostage But Struggles To Come Up With A Ransom
SAHIL KAPUR
Republicans want something in return for acting to avert a self-inflicted default on the country's debt, but they can't figure out what.
House Republicans discussed the issue last Friday at their annual all-member retreat in Maryland. As of Monday afternoon, they still hadn't come up with a ransom demand in order to free the proverbial hostage ahead of a late February deadline.
"We had a good discussion at the retreat, and there was general agreement that a 'clean' increase is not a good option – but no consensus yet other than than," a House GOP leadership aide said on Monday.
The problem is that Republicans don't want to raise the borrowing limit without extracting concessions from the White House, but are struggling to devise a proposal that can achieve 217 votes to pass out of the House and thereby force a hostage standoff. They have 232 members, and a number of staunch conservatives don't want to vote for any debt limit hike.
Meanwhile, Democrats are refusing to submit to any demands merely to avert default, and the White House vows that raising the debt limit "cleanly," without policy add-ons, is non-negotiable, as Congress did twice last year.
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