Debt ceiling speeches: Obama reasserts himself; Boehner pushes back

• John Boehner, left, rebutted Barack Obama’s remarks on the debt ceiling within minutes. | AP Photo Close 

President Barack Obama elbowed his way back into the debt ceiling debate Monday night, three days after Republicans shoved him out, but he offered no hint of a solution to the escalating political and financial crisis.

If regular citizens — or markets here and overseas — were looking for reassurance in Obama’s 15-minute speech or House Speaker John Boehner’s five-minute rebuttal, they were out of luck. Instead, the men who hold the fiscal destiny of nearly 312 million people in their hands treated viewers to the unsettling spectacle of two leaders talking past, not to, each other.

With neither Obama nor House Republicans yet willing to make the final compromise necessary to seal a deal, the leader of the free world made a stunning appeal for regular citizens to call or email their representatives to end what he called the “most dangerous game.”

“This is no way to run the greatest country on Earth. … We can’t allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare,” Obama added. “If you want a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, let your member of Congress know.”

The tactic seemed to have the desired effect, temporarily overwhelming the website of Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders.

Obama did call for unity, quoting Ronald Reagan and citing former presidents from both parties who support a “balanced approach” of spending cuts, revenue increases and entitlement reforms. But he also bashed Republicans, arguing that their tactics “risk sparking a deep economic crisis — one caused almost entirely by Washington” and categorically rejected Boehner’s new plan for a short-term debt ceiling hike.

“Defaulting on our obligations is a reckless and irresponsible outcome to this debate,” Obama said. “And Republican leaders say that they agree we must avoid default. But the new approach that Speaker Boehner unveiled today, which would temporarily extend the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts, would force us to once again face the threat of default just six months from now. In other words, it doesn’t solve the problem.”

Beyond the I’m-still-here theme of the speech, Obama sought to strike the larger themes of his 2012 campaign, aimed at independent voters who have only now begun tuning into the debt debate: the need for compromise, his disgust with partisan Washington and his determination to make the rich pay their fair share. If his campaign-style rhetoric was persuasive, it came at an awkward time, during the final days when a reasonable debt ceiling compromise can still be struck.

In an extraordinary contrast, Boehner delivered a response only minutes later from the Capitol. He sought to flip the script on Obama, accusing him of not being able to take “yes for an answer” in bipartisan debt negotiations while accusing the president of trying to hike taxes and avoiding tough decisions on entitlement reform.

“The sad truth is that the president wanted a blank check six months ago, and he wants a blank check today,” Boehner said. “That is just not going to happen.”

Boehner’s decision to deliver his own prime-time rebuttal irked the White House, which had been negotiating quietly with networks for much of Monday. And the open conflict between the two men, just days after they seemed to be on the verge of a $3 trillion-to-$4 trillion “grand bargain,” appeared to leave both men feeling a bit like star-crossed Shakespearean characters forced reluctantly into combat.

After all, these were two leaders so eager to avoid the appearance of conflict they opted to play in the same twosome during their famous first round of golf in mid-June. On Monday night, Obama, for his part, went out of his way to praise Boehner’s seriousness. And the speaker, a born deal-cutter stymied by his conservative members, was caught quipping, “I didn’t sign up for going mano-a-mano with the president of United States,” as he walked out of the Capitol after delivering his remarks. The CBS producer who heard him Tweeted Boehner’s comments.

Obama, who has billed himself as the adult in the room, has found himself increasingly isolated after Boehner pulled out of the talks on Friday, the third time a GOP leader has left Obama at the altar. The move, Boehner told radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, deeply frustrated the president who has been trying to find a way back in.

Monday’s presidential address, a stern affair delivered among the white columns and Georgian chairs of the East Room, was intended to reassert Obama’s influence and, to some extent, awaken ordinary Americans for the first time to the perils posed by what he called a “stalemate.”

“Unfortunately, for the past several weeks, Republican House members have essentially said that the only way they’ll vote to prevent America’s first-ever default is if the rest of us agree to their deep, spending cuts-only approach,” Obama said. “If that happens, and we default, we would not have enough money to pay all of our bills — bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses.”

Jilted by Boehner after weeks of talks on a grand bargain, the president ordered congressional leaders to the White House Saturday morning to present him with a plan for raising the debt limit. But neither party has produced a bill certain to make it through either chamber, let alone both.

Boehner proposed a two-step plan Monday to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion in increments, with the second vote early next year contingent on Congress accepting the recommendations of a new committee for deep spending cuts.

“If the President signs it, the ‘crisis’ atmosphere he has created will simply disappear,” Boehner said. “The debt limit will be raised. Spending will be cut by more than one trillion dollars, and a serious, bipartisan committee of the Congress will begin the hard but necessary work of dealing with the tough challenges our nation faces.”

But the GOP plan faces a tough road. It will likely lose support from a swath of his conference that will vote only for the GOP’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan, which means he’ll need to rely on Democrats. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says her members are united in opposition.

Obama said he prefers an alternative released Monday by Senate Democrats, a one-time vote to raise the debt limit through 2012 coupled with a $2.7 trillion package of spending cuts and savings. A new committee would report back later in the year with a plan to achieve more deficit reductions.

The president said the Republican plan, with the second debt vote next year, would subject the economy to a cycle of uncertainty.

“Based on what we’ve seen these past few weeks, we know what to expect six months from now,” Obama said. “The House will once again refuse to prevent default unless the rest of us accept their cuts-only approach. Again, they will refuse to ask the wealthiest Americans to give up their tax cuts or deductions. Again, they will demand harsh cuts to programs like Medicare. And once again, the economy will be held captive unless they get their way.”

But like Boehner’s plan in the House, the Senate Democratic plan will struggle for passage. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) needs support from 60 senators to break a filibuster, a threshold he appears unlikely to meet.

His legislation relies on $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a provision that faces bipartisan criticism as a budget gimmick. It could chip away at Reid’s majority and erode support among Republicans.

In his speech, Boehner sought to distance himself from making the debate about a clash of personalities. He said he tried to “partner” with the president on a plan – “I gave it my all,” Boehner said.

“This debate isn’t about President Obama and House Republicans … it isn’t about Congress and the White House … it’s about what’s standing between the American people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families,” Boehner said.

For close observers of the Capitol, it was typical Boehner. He referenced his family — said entitlements wouldn’t be there for his two daughters — and made calls for smaller government.

“The solution to this crisis is not complicated,” Boehner said, in his typical simple Midwestern manner. “If you’re spending more money than you’re taking in, you need to spend less of it.”

Jake Sherman, Manu Raju and Scott Wong contributed to this report.

 

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