NEW YORK — House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) is set to deliver a sermon of fiscal austerity and federal debt Monday evening before the titans of the nation’s financial industry.
In his address to the Economic Club of New York, Boehner could provide more clarity about what House Republicans will demand from President Obama and Senate Democrats in exchange for lifting the limit on federal borrowing this spring or summer.
After a week of mixed signals about how hard GOP leaders will push for their controversial Medicare-overhaul proposal, senior GOP aides said Monday that they expect Boehner to stand behind a partial privatization of the popular health-care plan for the elderly.
However, in recent days, many GOP aides and several Republican leaders signaled that the proposal is not likely to be a focus of the ongoing budget negotiations led by Vice President Biden and a bipartisan group of six congressional leaders, because President Obama’s staunch opposition makes the plan virtually dead on arrival.
One key area Boehner is expected to highlight in his remarks is a demand for “real cuts, not some gimmicky” proposal that would include tax increases, a senior GOP aide said Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the address in advance.
That demand is an implicit rejection of the proposals offered by Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who have suggested that they could support a plan that would trigger spending cuts and tax increases if certain deficit targets were not reached in the years ahead. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Boehner’s appointee to the Biden talks, has rejected any proposal that leads to increased revenue through changes to the tax code.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the Democrats’ No. 3 leader in the Senate, said Monday that Boehner’s long-running call for an “adult conversation” with the American public about the $14.3 trillion national debt needs to begin Monday night, with the House speaker telling some of the nation’s most powerful financial figures that he will approve lifting the debt ceiling, even if talks on long-term financing are not complete.
“Speaker Boehner needs to have adult moment right here and now,” Schumer told reporters in a conference call Monday afternoon.
Read more at The Washington Post.