Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Some of the House Republicans' strongest opponents of raising the U.S. debt limit without conditions say they won't try to stop Speaker John Boehner from pushing a bill through if it's the only way to avoid default.
"I'm not going to be particularly critical" of leaders bringing up such a measure if it's needed, Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican, said in an interview yesterday. "I'm just not going to vote for a debt ceiling increase."
House Republicans' demand to roll back parts of the Obamacare health-care law as part of a measure to increase the debt ceiling contributed to a 16-day partial government shutdown in October. Boehner later called that a "predictable disaster," and party members say they won't let the U.S. default on its obligations.
Recommended For You
"I'd like to do something substantive, but I also know that we're just going through the motions," said Representative Justin Amash, a Tea Party-backed Republican from Michigan who has resisted debt-limit increases. "If we're going to get there anyway, we might as well just get there."
A suspension of the federal debt limit, enacted by Congress in October, is scheduled to expire Feb. 7. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has urged Congress to act quickly to raise the cap, saying the government's ability to meet its obligations will run out before the end of this month.
Republicans so far have been unable to garner enough support for a bill that would seek to extract spending or policy concessions in exchange for raising the cap.
Many opinions
Boehner of Ohio told reporters after a private conference meeting yesterday that his members have "a lot of opinions about how to deal with the debt limit," though "no decisions have been made."
An extension of government borrowing authority without conditions is an option because "the speaker has made it clear the debt ceiling is going to be raised" and "economically, he's right," Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole, a Boehner ally, told reporters.
President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats say they won't negotiate with Republicans on raising the limit.
"Why don't we skip the crisis this time?" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told reporters yesterday. "We cannot and will not play games with the full faith and credit of our country."
Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said Feb. 1 that "probably enough" members of his party in the Senate would back a debt-ceiling increase with no conditions attached.
Strategy talks
The 232 House Republicans have held at least two rounds of private strategy talks, including last week at their annual retreat in Cambridge, Maryland, and again yesterday.
"We're in discussion with that," Republican Mario Diaz- Balart of Florida said about a debt-limit increase at a Bloomberg Government breakfast yesterday. "I don't think there is a consensus yet with that in terms of what issues are going to be brought up with the debt ceiling."
The House isn't scheduled to take up a debt limit bill before Feb. 7.
One option House Republicans are considering would demand repeal of health-care law provisions designed to limit losses incurred by health insurers if the cost of covering an older, sicker pool of people is higher than they anticipated.
Without the risk mechanisms, insurers may have to raise premiums, further discouraging healthy people from signing up, a potential death spiral for the insurance exchanges.
Tap Treasury
The Health and Human Services Department said in 2013 that it might tap the Treasury to aid the insurers. Republicans call that a bailout and want to prevent it.
Yesterday, though, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said keeping the health-care law's risk mechanisms would save the federal government $8 billion over the next 10 years.
Senate Budget Chairwoman Patty Murray of Washington said House Republicans are "planning to manufacture a crisis over the debt limit," though they "can't seem to agree on which ridiculous demand to make in exchange for ensuring the United States pays its bills."
Murray rejected any effort by Republicans to curb Obamacare as part of a debt-limit increase, saying Democrats "are not going to let them hijack the economy over bogus demands that are targeted more at settling internal political disputes than actually moving our economy forward responsibly."
Dollar volatility
U.S. dollar volatility over the last 90 days, a key measure of economic uncertainty, fell to 4.07 percentage points yesterday from a yearly high of 7.34 percent in September, when Congress was also debating how to raise the debt ceiling.
Representative Richard Nugent, a Florida Republican, said the House effort is "really about passing" the debt limit. The House probably will attach conditions for raising it "at least for the first round," he said in an interview.
King of Iowa, a Republican who has been skeptical of increasing the debt limit without significant conditions, said he's not sure Republicans can win anything if they're not united in demanding it.
King said he's urging Republican leaders to hold a vote on a debt-limit increase with some type of condition attached. He said they should signal that if the Senate strips out the condition and sends the bill back to the House, leaders would allow a vote as long as Democrats provide most of the support.
Boehner stressed to reporters that Republicans won't allow a default.
"The goal is to increase the debt limit; nobody wants to default on our debt," Boehner said. "While we're doing this, we ought to do something about jobs and the economy, about the drivers of our debt. When we have a decision, we'll let you know."
Asked whether any debt limit measure could get enough Republican votes to guarantee passage without needing Democratic support, Boehner said, "We'll see."
With assistance from Alex Wayne and Kathleen Hunter in Washington.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
