House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer seems to be itching to reach across the aisle on the next big budget battle, telling Politico that he’s interested in working with House Speaker John Boehner to resolve the two parties’ differences on the debt ceiling debate.
In a letter to Speaker Boehner on Tuesday, Hoyer urged him to avoid “demagoguery” or “holding the economy hostage” over the debt limit, which Department of Treasury officials say will max out by the end of May and lead to the U.S. defaulting on its loans.
Hoyer and others are having to do an about-face to send this message, however, as he and others, including President Obama, have been apologizing for taking that very stance in previous debt ceiling debates. In November 2004, Hoyer called raising the debt ceiling “immoral,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opposed raising the ceiling in 2006, saying that it would hurt the economy and “it’s the last thing we should do.”
