House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) defended his push this week for early talks on raising the debt limit, saying “the only ones who are talking about drama or brinksmanship are my Democrat colleagues across the aisle.”
The Speaker took many in Washington by surprise when he laid down an early marker during a Tuesday speech to a fiscal summit, pledging to stick to his demand last year that the next increase in the debt ceiling be accompanied by greater spending cuts and reforms.
The nation is not expected to hit its borrowing limit until after the November election or early next year, but Boehner warned that leaders must start talking now about the crush of big-ticket items that Congress must address before Jan. 1. They include the beginning of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts and the expiration of the George W. Bush-era tax rates.
Read more on Boehner's weekly Capitol press conference.
