POLITICS - Congress and the Debt Limit

(aka: Tea Party Terrorists Loose a Battle)

"Treasury Secretary Lew on Congress ‘coming to terms’ with the debt limit" PBS NewsHour 10/28/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The bipartisan budget deal passed by the House is the product of negotiations between Congressional leaders and the White House.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sits down with Gwen Ifill to discuss how Congress achieved its moment of breakthrough, plus a rundown of some of the budget nuts and bolts.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  Earlier this afternoon, I sat down with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, thank you for joining us.

JACK LEW, Secretary of the Treasury:  Great to be with you, Gwen.

GWEN IFILL:  As we speak this afternoon, it looks like a vote is imminent on the budget deal and on budget deal that would also allow the debt limit to go up.

After kicking this can down the road repeatedly with Congress, what changed this time to allow a two-year deal to be on the verge of approval?

JACK LEW:  Well, I think a lot of things came together.

Obviously, the fact that the debt limit is going to be reached on Tuesday of next week, and they have to act before then, focused their minds on the debt limit in a very real way.  I have been communicating with Congress on a very regular basis.  It’s been getting closer and closer.  And I think it’s a good thing that they have reached an agreement, so that it certainly seems to be on track for the debt limit being raised in time to avoid that unnecessary self-inflicted wound.

On the budget side, there have been conversations going on for many years, but intensely for many weeks, to try and figure out how to resolve this year’s funding bills.  The approach is one that we have supported for a long time, which is to relieve the across-the-board cuts in sequestration by replacing the savings with a balanced mix of tax and spending items.

The breakthrough in the last week has enabled us to reach an agreement, where we have achieved that goal, and providing $80 billion of relief is going to give Congress the ability to write appropriations bills to meet our domestic needs and our defense needs.  This means that they will be able to invest in research and education and also in our national defense.

I think that’s what Americans want Congress to do.  It shouldn’t be so hard to get to these moments where these agreements can be reached.  And I hope this passes in a way that’s uneventful and enables Congress to get on with its work.