Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Tuesday accused President Obama of attempting to "bully" house Republicans with his press conference Monday demanding that Congress raise the debt ceiling.
“This president is deliberately seeking confrontation,” Gingrich told CBS News. “I think he’s going out of his way to bully the House Republicans.”
During the press conference, Obama said the threat of default was "irresponsible" and "absurd," demanding that the House GOP extend the debt ceiling independent of negotiations on a comprehensive debt deal.
“They will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy,” Obama said. “The full faith and credit of the United States of America is not a bargaining chip.”
On Tuesday, Gingrich cautioned his former colleagues that they might not have the political ability to win a fight over the debt ceiling.
“I don’t think we should pick fights where we are in a position that we can’t, in fact, in the end, enforce our will, because we have no evidence that Barack Obama’s going to compromise,” Gingrich said. “Nothing he’s done in the last couple of months would imply that he’s going to compromise.”
Rather, Gingrich recommended using continuing resolutions and the threat of the automatic sequester, set to be implemented at the end of February to force Democrats to accept spending cuts.
"There are dozens of places you can dramatically change spending without having to get involved in a general crisis over the U.S. debt," Gingrich said.
