Obama urges debt ceiling deal to avoid 'crashing' world economy ...
6 hours ago - Obama says budget off table until government opens • Boehner replies: ... accept a relatively short-term raising of the debt ceiling and funding of .... He said it alarms him to read that some legislators think default would be OK.
Updated
The markets did not respond favorably to the
president's "it makes me nervous" talk. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
closed down 159 points on the day – just over 1% down – and Nasdaq
dropped 2%. The bond markets were roiled too, Reuters reports:
Interest rates on one-month U.S. government debt hit their highest levels in five years on Tuesday as anxiety rose over whether the United States will avert a debt default, while selling accelerated in U.S. stocks, particularly among those that have gained sharply of late.
Yields on short-dated bills maturing in the next few weeks rose sharply, and the Treasury sold $30 billion in four-week bills at 0.35 percent, the highest yield since October 2008. Demand was at its weakest in four-and-a-half years, as investors have become concerned about the potential for a missed payment if the Treasury's borrowing authority is not extended with an increase in the debt limit.
"This is the canary in the coal mine," said Eric Green, global head of rates, currency and commodity research at TD Securities in New York. "You could see this seep into other markets. The next shoe to drop is for stocks to drop further. That's why you want the safety of gold and longer-dated Treasuries."
John Boehner is speaking.
He says every recent president has conducted negotiations with the opposition but Obama will not.
He says every recent president has conducted negotiations with the opposition but Obama will not.
The long and short of it is, there's going to be a negotiation here. We can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something...[about underlying drivers of debt].
This isn't about me and frankly it's not about Republicans. This is about the future for our kids and our grandkids.
Boehner says he wants to talk:
At times like this the American people expect their leaders to sit down and have a conversation. I want that conversation....
What the president said today is, if there's unconditional surrender by Republicans, he'll sit down and talk to us. That's not the way our government works.
Boehner concludes his brief statement.
The respective position of the antagonistic parties appears to have budged not a smidge.
The respective position of the antagonistic parties appears to have budged not a smidge.
Updated
Boehner said every recent president has cut a deal over the debt ceiling. He has said it before. Is it true?
"Both parties have long used the debt ceiling as a vehicle for pet initiatives for a very distinct reason: Debt-ceiling bills were viewed as must-pass legislation and a surefire way to get something through Congress," the Wall Street Journal reports:
"Both parties have long used the debt ceiling as a vehicle for pet initiatives for a very distinct reason: Debt-ceiling bills were viewed as must-pass legislation and a surefire way to get something through Congress," the Wall Street Journal reports:
The issue also flared up on several occasions during President Ronald Reagan’s administration. After House Democrats voted down a measure to hike the debt limit to $1.8 trillion in May 1984, the Wall Street Journal wrote “tradition prevailed yesterday as the debt-increase debate sparked the kinds of partisan pyrotechnics for which it has become famous.”The difference now, according to the Obama administration: back then there was never the threat of a default – only squabbles over what freeriders were allowed to remain on an inevitably departing train:
“The question of threatening to cause a default of the United States, not until 2011 did it become a positive agenda,” for Republicans, [Treasury secretary] Lew said on “Fox News Sunday.”
To bring Republicans and Democrats together, the New Yorker's John Cassidy calls for ... a stock market crash:
Had this situation arisen in the not-so-distant past, it’s conceivable that some older, wiser heads from both parties would have gotten together and hashed out a deal that allowed each side to claim victory. But given the G.O.P.’s lurch to the right, and the White House’s understandable reluctance to buckle in the face of reckless brinkmanship, such a statesmanlike solution is difficult to envisage. Something more drastic is needed, and my candidate is a stock market crash.Cassidy makes an argument based on precedent: in 2008 after Congress failed to pass an initial TARP bank bailout bill, Wall Street dropped almost 800 points in a day – and Congress abruptly got its act together. Read the full piece here.
Updated
Summary
We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here's a summary of where things stand:
• President Obama and Speaker Boehner once again staked out seemingly irresoluble positions on the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The president said he would not negotiate with Congress until it votes to end the one and raise the other. The speaker said negotiations are a precondition.
• The president held his 26th news conference as president to put pressure on Republicans over the shutdown and warn of the disaster a default would precipitate.
• Asked what he could give Republicans to allow them to save face in taking votes they have loudly refused, the president said he would accept a prescription for future "process." "They can attach some process to [an immediate deal] that gives them some certainty that in fact things they're concerned about will be topics for negotiation," he said.
• "I'm not budgin' when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States," Obama said. However he did indicate that he would accept a relatively short-term raising of the debt ceiling and funding of government: "if they can't do it for a long time, do it for the period of time in which these negotiations are taking place," he said of Republicans.
• Boehner isn't budgin', either: "The long and short of it is, there's going to be a negotiation here," he said. "We can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something" about underlying drivers of debt.
• Obama said he was "nervous" about a default. He said it would be catastrophic. "At some point [Treasury] emergency powers run out, and the clock is ticking," he said.
America feels your pain:
• President Obama and Speaker Boehner once again staked out seemingly irresoluble positions on the government shutdown and debt ceiling. The president said he would not negotiate with Congress until it votes to end the one and raise the other. The speaker said negotiations are a precondition.
• The president held his 26th news conference as president to put pressure on Republicans over the shutdown and warn of the disaster a default would precipitate.
• Asked what he could give Republicans to allow them to save face in taking votes they have loudly refused, the president said he would accept a prescription for future "process." "They can attach some process to [an immediate deal] that gives them some certainty that in fact things they're concerned about will be topics for negotiation," he said.
• "I'm not budgin' when it comes to the full faith and credit of the United States," Obama said. However he did indicate that he would accept a relatively short-term raising of the debt ceiling and funding of government: "if they can't do it for a long time, do it for the period of time in which these negotiations are taking place," he said of Republicans.
• Boehner isn't budgin', either: "The long and short of it is, there's going to be a negotiation here," he said. "We can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something" about underlying drivers of debt.
• Obama said he was "nervous" about a default. He said it would be catastrophic. "At some point [Treasury] emergency powers run out, and the clock is ticking," he said.
America feels your pain:
Updated
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