The only two Republicans participating in bipartisan negotiations over the budget and debt ceiling quit the talks Thursday, putting any potential deal in jeopardy just weeks before Congress hits a critical deadline. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., abruptly abandoned the ongoing negotiations among six lawmakers and Vice President Biden.
The lawmakers had been meeting frequently to hammer out an agreement that would rein in federal spending in exchange for raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline. If the deadline is missed, the United States could default on its loans.
Recommended Stories
The White House played down the threat to the talks, saying negotiations had simply moved to a different phase, one that could include direct involvement of President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
“The process was always going to have to then proceed out of the negotiating room and move forward with the engagement of the speaker, Senate leaders, House minority leader, the president, etc,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday.
Biden portrayed the walkout as a mere transition, saying, “The next phase is in the hands of those leaders, who need to determine the scope of an agreement that can tackle the problem and attract bipartisan support.” The negotiations he led are now “in abeyance,” Biden said.
Cantor said he quit the talks because Democrats are insisting that any budget deal include new taxes, a nonstarter for most Republicans. Kyl quickly followed suit, issuing a joint statement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying any deal that includes tax increases “would fail with bipartisan opposition.”
Cantor, Kyl and McConnell called on Obama to step in personally to help negotiate a deal, a feeling that both parties appear to espouse after weeks of talks yielded very little in the way of a substantial agreement.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., admitted that it may be difficult to reach any agreement until the talks reach a higher level.
“I think it’s going to advance to the president and the speaker,” Reid said.
Reid and other Democratic leaders denounced the Republicans’ departure.
“This is not an adult moment,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
Schumer said any deal would have to include both spending cuts and new revenue that could come from the elimination of subsidies for ethanol producers and major oil companies.
Democrats this week also proposed a new economic stimulus measure as part of the debt ceiling talks that would include new tax breaks and new spending on infrastructure and green energy initiatives.
Republicans, Schumer said, “clearly got spooked by how this final deal has to come together.”
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the government will hit its debt ceiling — the limit on how much it can borrow — on Aug. 2. Without a deal, the government will be unable to pay its debt and the fragile economy could be thrown into a tailspin, he said.
Just three weeks remain in which both the House and Senate will be in session, leaving very little time for the two parties to work out a deal and win congressional approval for it.
