Then & Now: The changing rhetoric in the debt-limit debate

The view from Treasury:

Treasury Secretary John Snow March 14, 2006

I look forward to working with members of Congress to ensure that the bill to increase the debt limit is not encumbered with extraneous matters that could needlessly delay its timely enactment. I am urging members of Congress in the strongest possible terms to resist coupling an increase in the debt ceiling with other issues. Rather, they should vote to raise the ceiling this week. It would be unthinkable for them not to take action.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner April 17, 2011

We're going to move forward, and we want--again, we want Congress to put in place a comprehensive framework, a balanced framework, that can reduce our long-term deficits. And we're going to work hard to do that. But if, by the time we need to raise the debt limit, we haven't worked all that out, Congress still has to raise the debt limit. Again, leadership recognize that.

From the: Oval Office | Treasury
Democrats: Obama | Reid | Rangel
Republicans: Grassley | Pence