Obama: Debt Ceiling Not Up for Negotiation

After hailing the passage of the “fiscal cliff” last night, President Barack Obama laid down a marker on the debt ceiling: It will not, he said, be up for negotiation.

“[W]hile I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed. Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff,” Obama said at around 11:26 last night.