WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — House Republicans are discussing a short-term debt ceiling increase to buy time for broader deficit reduction negotiations with Democrats, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Thursday.
“We’re discussing the possible virtue of a short-term debt limit extension so that we have a better chance of getting the Senate and the White House involved in discussions in March,” Ryan told reporters gathered at the pricey Kingsmill resort in Williamsburg, where the House GOP is holding its annual retreat.
“All of those things are the kinds of things we’re discussing,” said Ryan, the party’s budget chief and 2012 vice presidential candidate.A small hike in the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling would give the government more time to make payments on its responsibilities as lawmakers and the White House haggle over federal spending. A GOP leadership aide said there was no consensus on the size of a debt limit hike, and that it would have to be coupled with entitlement reforms or spending cuts.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that the nation hit its borrowing limit at the end of 2012 and will run out of ways to avoid a first-ever default sometime between mid-February and early March. $85 billion in across-the-board 2013 cuts to defense and domestic spending are set to begin taking effect in March, and the government will run out of funding a month later.
Republican leaders are briefing rank-and-file members on the “consequences” of the three major deadlines coming on the debt ceiling, the automatic spending cuts of sequestration and the expiration of government funding at the end of March.
Ryan said the party was looking to prepare members for the coming fiscal debates, both to achieve consensus on a path forward and to set reasonable expectations for a party clinging to a sliver of power in Washington.
“Our goal is to make sure our members understand all the deadlines that our coming, all the consequences of those deadlines that are coming, in order so that we can make a better-informed decision about how to move, how to proceed,” Ryan said. “What we’ve been doing is facilitating a conservation about the best way to achieve progress on controlling our deficits and our debt, controlling spending, with the goal of doing our job to help prevent a debt crisis, and getting this economy going to create jobs.”
“Out of that we hope to achieve consensus on a plan to proceed so that we can make progress on controlling spending and deficits and debt,” he added.
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Seems like a replay of last year. It doesn’t matter which party is in office – and I usually wouldn’t say this but … they’re all a bunch of goddamn thieves. They line their pockets with our taxpayer dollars, increase their salaries by their own voting, and have full benefit packages which again, the American taxpayer pays for. You show me what middle class American makes the salaries these bozo’s are making with the benefits and perks and PAID holidays and vacations when the most important issues are up at the plate. If this were a business – you can bet your ass that they’d be working way into the wee-hours of the morning day after day until the problem was addressed. Not our politicians – they’re planning their upcoming pAID vacation days.
Indeed they need to be taught a lesson in humility. That is why I believe we as a people need to refocus. We will never bring about change asking them to change we must demand that their pay be reduced to a level that is feasible. They must be removed from the Gold Standard health care that they receive and go to the same benefits the people must endure through medicare and they must be held accountable for their taxes just as all citizens are. Once the money and the benefits have been revoked they will move on to those high paying corporate jobs their benefactors have been filling their pockets in to screw over the American People. Leaving the positions open for those who truly want to make a difference.
People have focused on the right/left paradigm, they refuse to see that they are opposite sides of the same coin both bought and sold. Both corrupt and selling us out for the money they receive from their corporate cronies. I say enough it is time they lived like We The People live. When they say we as a Nation must sacrifice to get through this they need to include themselves , not exclude which is what they have done. The gravy train needs to be done away with, period!!
Agreed!! How can we start a movement that addresses this issue? There has to be a way that we can start a “We The People” Live that brings government officials back into the “Middle-Class” fold so they don’t get elected just for the perks & money – How, how, How do we start it?
The problem with the movements that have been started at the grassroots level is that they have usurped by the very element we are trying to combat. People just cannot for some reason understand that there is not established party that truly represents the People anymore. The only way that I have seen that we can even begin to make people understand and allow them to open their eyes to the falsity of the right/left paradigm is to show the truth. The truth of the crimes committed on both sides. It has been my experience that most try to white wash what their chosen party does. Now I say most I do not say all, before anyone jumps down my throat. I am a democrat, but that does not blind me to the crimes and the faults of the Democratic party. I want what is best for my country not what is best for my beliefs as a democrat or that of the democratic platform. If something is evil or flawed I say so regardless of who is pushing it.
Until people are willing and able to be honest with themselves and understand that the survival of our Nation is not within the premise of a Party Line but rather in returning to the moral values that have always been at the forefront of our Nation (the people not the government). Not power , not foreign clout, but the true health of this Nation, there is not much that can be done. Except keep telling the truth no matter what anyone wants to believe.
The system has done much in the way of dumbing down the generations. However, we as a people have sat idly by saying the government would never do anything that wasn’t meant for our own good. The government will take care of it or us. That very same government that so many turn to with blind faith is the government that has , through the years, practiced secret and deadly experiments not only on people of other countries , but of American Citizens. Just as the Nazi’s did in Germany with the Jews. People recoil from this truth , it is too much for them to bear. The information is readily available , yet how many truly look for truth? More oft than not they simply look for that which reinforces that which they want to believe. That which makes them comfortable. The truth can be very cruel and very uncomfortable, yet truth is the ultimate cure. To face truth is to understand the true nature of the beast and it’s intent.
Most will attack the messenger because the message is too harsh for them to accept. Hitler was called a monster for his crimes against humanity. The U.S. government simply calls it policy. depleted uranium in bombs spread all over the middle east. Children being born with deformities from the radiation. 500,000 children dead in Iraq even before the invasion took place. Has anyone lifted a voice to say murderer? The interference in the affairs of other governments for the benefit of U.S. interests. How many dead? How many maimed? How many destitute? How many dictators have been empowered and are still being empowered by this government? Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and now Egypt are prime examples of U.S Foreign Policy. Before they were taken down Saddam Hussein , Muammar Gaddafi and the Shah of Iran were called friends and allies. Where are these countries now and how have they fared the U.S. interventions? The claim democracy, they claim human rights. Do we honestly see this in the way they deal with other countries? I for one do not. Yet everyone is alright with it because it is there and we are here. It is a far off incident that does not touch our lives so it is easily dismissed. Now we have kill lists and American citizens are assassinated without due process. How many have stood up and protested? We have our rights taken little by little one executive order at a time. How many have stood up and protested? we have a Congress and Senate that thumbs their noses at the will of the people. How many have stood up and protested? Those who have had the intestinal fortitude to stand and say “Enough” have been beaten and mistreated. How many stood up for them? Instead the right/left paradigm took hold and those of Occupy ( the same ones who came to the aid of victims of Hurricane Sandy when the government did not help them as was promised) were called dirty hippies and spat upon not only by the media but by those who believe only what they see form conservative or liberal mainstream. Still believing that they will bring them the truth . When in fact all they do is serve the very same criminals in power in Washington.
Occupy was the dirty hippies that had no direction and were deluded, while the Tea party was the good one the righteous one. Never mind that the Tea Party was hijacked by the GOP and turned into something it was never meant to be when it began. I know this because I was in the Tea Party when it began. So no one can tell me any stories about how it began and what it’s inception was all about. Republicans and Democrats together shoulder to shoulder protesting what we knew was bad for our Nation. It was taken over and poisoned. So what did they gain? Scott Walker in Wisconsin? The Koch Brothers and their ilk?
The sad truth is many will never react until it touches and negatively impacts their lives. Once their little lives are disrupted that is when they will stand up and say “Hold on now!”. This is what I see, I am human and very fallible so I could be mistaken, however, it is what I see on a daily basis….online and off.
How many people do you know who are ready to face that kind of truth?