TMCnet News
Obama: Power to solve debt crisis "in our hands"Washington, Jul 29, 2011 (EFE via COMTEX) -- President Barack Obama urged lawmakers Friday to reach a "bipartisan compromise" to raise the U.S. debt limit and avert a default. "There are a lot of crises in the world that we can't always predict or avoid - hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks," he said in televised remarks. "This isn't one of those crises. The power to solve this is in our hands." Noting the relatively small differences between competing Republican and Democratic proposals in Congress, Obama said: "So there are plenty of ways out of this mess. But we are almost out of time." Despite Obama's plea, there appears to be no immediate solution to the debt crisis since GOP House Speaker John Boehner announced his intention to modify his plan, which raised objections from the Tea Party, in order to put it to the vote Friday The president pointed out that "a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have already said they won't vote for" Boehner's plan, which, Obama said, "would force us to re-live this crisis in just a few short months." The Republican plan calls for spending cuts of almost $1 trillion in the next 10 years and would allow the debt ceiling, currently $14.3 trillion, to be raised until the end of the year, but would require another vote in early 2012. Obama and many of his fellow Democrats demands a more extensive accord, with spending cuts of $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years, and in exchange would allow the debt limit to remain in place until 2013. "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," Obama said Friday. The Treasury Department has repeated that Aug. 2 is the date when the government will be left without funds to pay what it owes, so that if the debt ceiling is not raised, it will be necessary to decide who gets paid and who doesn't. EFE afs/cd |