July 29, 2011 Debt Ceiling Debate Continues
House Passes Budget Control Act of 2011
A Sampling of Statements and Reactions

 
10:36 A.M. EDT
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everybody.  I want to speak about the ongoing and increasingly urgent efforts to avoid default and reduce our deficit.
 
Right now, the House of Representatives is still trying to pass a bill that a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already said they won’t vote for.  It’s a plan that would force us to re-live this crisis in just a few short months, holding our economy captive to Washington politics once again.  In other words, it does not solve the problem, and it has no chance of becoming law.  
 
What’s clear now is that any solution to avoid default must be bipartisan.  It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people -– not just one faction.  It will have to have the support of both the House and the Senate.  And there are multiple ways to resolve this problem.  Senator Reid, a Democrat, has introduced a plan in the Senate that contains cuts agreed upon by both parties.  Senator McConnell, a Republican, offered a solution that could get us through this.  There are plenty of modifications we can make to either of these plans in order to get them passed through both the House and the Senate and would allow me to sign them into law.  And today I urge Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan that can get support -- that can get support from both parties in the House –- a plan that I can sign by Tuesday. 
 
Now, keep in mind, this is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart.  We’re in rough agreement about how much spending can be cut responsibly as a first step toward reducing our deficit.  We agree on a process where the next step is a debate in the coming months on tax reform and entitlement reform –- and I’m ready and willing to have that debate.  And if we need to put in place some kind of enforcement mechanism to hold us all accountable for making these reforms, I’ll support that too if it’s done in a smart and balanced way.   
 
So there are plenty of ways out of this mess.  But we are almost out of time.  We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time, as we always have -- bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses.  Keep in mind, if we don’t do that, if we don’t come to an agreement, we could lose our country’s AAA credit rating, not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills -- we do -- but because we didn’t have a AAA political system to match our AAA credit rating.
 
And make no mistake -– for those who say they oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would result potentially in a tax increase on everyone in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages, their car loans, their credit cards.  And that’s inexcusable.
 
There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid -– hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks.  This isn’t one of those crises.  The power to solve this is in our hands.  And on a day when we’ve been reminded how fragile the economy already is, this is one burden we can lift ourselves.   We can end it with a simple vote –- a vote that Democrats and Republicans have been taking for decades, a vote that the leaders in Congress have taken for decades.
 
It’s not a vote that allows Congress to spend more money.  Raising the debt ceiling simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up.  I want to emphasize that.  The debt ceiling does not determine how much more money we can spend, it simply authorizes us to pay the bills we already have racked up.  It gives the United States of America the ability to keep its word. 
 
Now, on Monday night, I asked the American people to make their voice heard in this debate, and the response was overwhelming.  So please, to all the American people, keep it up.  If you want to see a bipartisan compromise -– a bill that can pass both houses of Congress and that I can sign -- let your members of Congress know.  Make a phone call.  Send an email.  Tweet.  Keep the pressure on Washington, and we can get past this.
 
And for my part, our administration will be continuing to work with Democrats and Republicans all weekend long until we find a solution.  The time for putting party first is over.  The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now.  And I am confident that we can solve this problem.  I’m confident that we will solve this problem.  For all the intrigue and all the drama that’s taking place on Capitol Hill right now, I’m confident that common sense and cooler heads will prevail.
 
But as I said earlier, we are now running out of time.  It’s important for everybody to step up and show the leadership that the American people expect.
 
Thank you. 

                             END           10:42 A.M. EDT

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For Immediate Release July 29, 2011

Contact: Alice Stewart

Bachmann Responds to President Obama's Remarks on the Debt Limit Crisis
Bachmann: "The President has asked the American people to call their members of Congress, he should be the one on the phone making a deal."
Washington D.C. - Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has issued the following statement in response to President Obama's remarks on the debt limit crisis:

"Mr. President, 'Show me the plan!' The President still has no plan to solve the economic crisis we are in. He continues to scare seniors and veterans by threatening their benefits. His definition of compromise is to have everyone agree with him that we should raise the debt limit, increase spending and increase taxes, but he is unwilling to provide the leadership to reach any agreement. The President asked the American people to call their members of Congress, he should be the one on the phone calling them to make a deal.

"The President’s statement that 'raising the debt ceiling gives us the ability to pay the bills congress has already racked up' is patently false. It was the President’s failed stimulus program, his bailout of banks and the auto industry, and the massive spending coming in his unconstitutional health care plan that has lead to an over 35 percent increase in our debt during the time he has been President. The President isn’t fooling anyone. He wants this increase so he can continue to waste taxpayer dollars on his failed economic policies. Today’s anemic GDP growth numbers are a stark reminder that this his policies have failed. Someone has to say stop. Someone has to say no to all of the massive spending and debt this President continues to give us. I will.”

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July 29, 2011
CONTACT: Rod Mitchell


WASHINGTON, DC (MMD Newswire) July 29, 2011 - - Even as House Speaker John Boehner bowed this morning to Tea Party pressure for a balanced budget amendment (BBA), the movement blasted a new version of his bill to raise the national debt ceiling by $900 billion, yet cut just $20 billion in 2012.

"Boehner's low-T, limp-noodle response to government borrowing at over 40 cents per dollar is simply unacceptable at this moment in history for which so many have waited," said Tom Trento, National Security Chairman for the Tea Party National Convention and a director of the Tea Party Founding Fathers. "The first House bill sent to the Senate requires a BBA to raise the debt limit, Boehner's latest concedes $900 billion in credit before the BBA condition kicks in, and neither bill cuts more than about $20 billion in 2012 - just five days worth of federal borrowing!"

Meanwhile, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler, co-founders of Tea Party Patriots, said of the Boehner legislation, "The 'cuts' proposed now are not real; they are phantom cuts to take place in the future.... We simply will not accept their lazy, fiscally irresponsible approach."

Trento said, "Look, Obama and Reid have pledged to kill even these wimpy bills, so why won't House Republicans act like the Spartans in the movie '300' and take a courageous stand for legislation that actually fixes our deficit numbers right now? Why wait years for a BBA to get ratified without serious and significant cuts today?"

Trento, also president of The United West, a Tea Party-tied group which sees the national debt as a national security threat, unveiled a single-issue 2012 Congressional Scorecard on the debt limit earlier this week. He said, "There are 241 House Republicans and 47 Senate Republicans who, with a few sane Democrats, exceed the 300 Spartans whom Leonidas led to defeat the Persians at Thermopylae and save Western Civilization. Today, certain Persians leading Iran are still menacing the West with nuclear threats. It's imperative that our lawmakers start cutting our debt for the sake of U.S. and Western security. We can't defend liberty while sinking in red ink."

Trento said, "Republicans in the Senate, usually one big RINO preserve, have been much bolder than Boehner. Rand Paul (R-KY) has called for $500 billion in cuts, one seventh of our bloated U.S. budget. Tom Coburn (R-OK) says $300 billion is a lay-up. Marco Rubio seems hot to go after all the incredible waste, overlap, and outrages in D.C. Yet all those tough-talkers among House Republicans will only back $20 billion in 2012 cuts? Boehner and his so-called 'young guns' keep firing blanks. In exchange for any debt bump, Tea Partiers and other patriots are expecting giant price tags like $500 billion in 2012 cuts, real reform of all health care entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the defunding of Planned Parenthood and the gutting of Obamacare as called for by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)."

Yesterday, Trento warned four "GOP Stupaks" for defecting from recent vows not to raise the debt limit without prior Congressional passage of the "Cut, Cap and Balance" BBA out to the states for ratification. The four Republican freshman pledge-breakers were Reps. James Lankford (OK), Allen West (FL), Mike Kelly (PA), and Bill Flores (TX), but Trento said because enough members held firm for the BBA, the defection"may not go down on their permanent record. It's like the difference between juvenile offenses and adult criminality."

The term "Stupak" refers to former U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), who famously betrayed conservatives last year to ensure final passage of Obamacare, the president's health bill, after vowing differently. Stupak ended his House career in 2010. Last night, said Trento, Boehner "couldn't find enough Stupaks to betray the BBA, and we applaud all House Republicans who held the line and maintained their integrity." Trento posted an "Integrity Alert" Thursday about the frosh BBA defectors and says the Tea Party hit hundreds of thousands of cell phones with text messages naming the vow-breaking Congressmen.

Condemning any "debt ceiling giveaway," the Congressional scorecard is viewable at www.TeaPartyScorecard2012.com -- and it's not nice to lawmakers willing to trade their pro-debt votes cheaply. The Tea Party scorecard also mocks Obama's August 2 deadline for debt ceiling action as "phony," arguing that tax revenues are ten times what's required to make interest payments to U.S. bondholders.

Speaker Boehner
Remarks on the House Floor
Budget Control Act of 2011
Washington, DC 
July 29, 2011
[Source: Speaker's Office]