Pelosi: Democrats won’t take the debt ceiling hostage
(WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES)
Two nights ago, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNBC’s Larry Kudlow that this debt-ceiling deal was only the beginning. “What we have done, Larry, also is set a new template,” he said. “In the future, any president, this one or another one, when they request us to raise the debt ceiling, it will not be clean anymore.”
This morning, during a roundtable for columnists, I asked House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi whether she agreed with McConnell’s statements. If 2012 ushered in President Rick Perry and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, would Democrats do with the 2013 debt-ceiling increase what Republicans did with the 2011 debt-ceiling increase, and use it as an opportunity to force concessions on fiscal policy?
“No,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a good idea and I don’t think it’s right. These are two different conversations. One is a mathematical figure you need to reach to say you’re lifting the debt limit. But then, because we dragged our feet for so long, the markets upped the ante and said they wanted to see a sincere sign of deficit reduction. But I don’t think they’re even related. Why would you have an artificial timetable on something that doesn’t need to have an artificial timetable? Just debate the issue.”
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