Obama to Republicans: ‘I’m not budging’
theGRIO REPORT - President Obama used a Tuesday press conference to bluntly and repeatedly reiterate his core position on the fiscal standoff of the last two weeks...
President Obama used a Tuesday press conference to bluntly and repeatedly reiterate his core position on the fiscal standoff of the last two weeks: House Republicans will raise the debt ceiling and end a government shutdown without concessions from Democrats or he will blame them for a U.S. default on its loans that will be akin to a “nuclear bomb” hitting the economy, in the president’s words.
“I’m not budging,” he declared, summing up an hour of him emphasizing that very message.
Obama did signal he would support a very short increase of the debt ceiling and government funding and then enter negotiations with Republicans.
But he continued to declare that unlike in 2011, when the president agreed to large budget cuts as part of a deal to increase the debt ceiling, Republicans must hike the debt ceiling now without any preconditions.
“We’re not going to do that again, not just for me, but because future presidents, Republican or Democrat, should not be in a position where they have to choose between making sure the economy stays afloat and we avoid worldwide catastrophe, or we provide concessions to one faction of one party in one house,” he said.
The president’s remarks illustrated the shift since last week, when the government shutdown first started. The disagreement was initially about the president’s health care law, which Republicans have now effectively conceded they will not be able to block. Then, it was about the government shutdown, a crisis whose urgency has been reduced as leaders of both parties have promised to pay furloughed workers.
Now, it’s about the debt ceiling, which the U.S. is expected to exceed on Oct. 17. Obama is determined to end the precedent that Republicans will gain concessions when they hike the debt ceiling, not just now, but for the rest of Obama’s tenure in office, ending the cycle of crises that have defined his last three years. Obama wants to break the Republicans’s debt ceiling strategy permanently.
Republicans meanwhile seem less focused on achieving any kind of fiscal or policy goal through this process than simply not capitulating to Obama.
“The long and short of it is there is going be a negotiation here,” said House Speaker John Boehner after Obama’s appearance.
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