ORP: "Obama Address Rejecting Common-Sense Debt Limit is Irresponsible"

Release:

Columbus - Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine released the following statement this evening in response to President Obama's address:

"It's irresponsible that the president who campaigned on hope and change has decided to place the importance of his reelection prospects before American prosperity," Chairman DeWine said.

"Speaker Boehner has outlined an approach which averts default and guarantees spending reforms to ensure that government is prevented from spending money it doesn't have.  Rejecting this common-sense approach simply because of political expedience once again shows that the only job our president cares about is his own," Chairman DeWine concluded. 

Background Information:

Former Congressional Budget Office director and economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin, appearing on CNBC this morning, boosted a two-step plan to prevent default and make substantive spending cuts and reforms as the "appropriate" approach.  He also panned the White House's insistence on granting President Obama a blank check that gets him past the next election.  "The president doesn't want to talk about his record of debt between now and the election and everyone knows that," Holtz-Eakin said.  Here are some excerpts from his comments on CNBC:

• A Two-Step Approach Is "Appropriate."  "Perhaps we'll get a short-term increase and we'll be back at this before the election.  I think that's appropriate.  This debate is fundamentally about the future of entitlements in America - they are the source of the rising debt - they are broken, they need to be reformed for the next generation and that's a suitable conversation for an election year."
• White House Is Making Political Argument "Wrapped In Economic Clothing."  "Look, to my eye this has all been political. The desire to get to 2013 can get wrapped in economic clothing but it's fundamentally a political argument.  The president doesn't want to talk about his record of debt between now and the election and everyone knows that. 
• Markets Looking for "Real Progress," Not a Blank Check.  "What the markets will look for ... they'll want to see the debt ceiling avoid near-term disruption and see substantive progress toward controlling spending.  That is the fundamental problem.  It's not a number, it's the quality of changes that they see."

Speaker Boehner and Congressional Republicans have been clear that to pass the House, any debt limit increase must be accompanied by spending cuts that exceed the amount of the debt limit hike. 

• The American people overwhelmingly support this principle of "cut more than you hike."  According to a recent CNN survey, 66 percent of Americans would only support an increase in the debt limit if "substantial spending cuts and caps on future spending were approved." This is in addition to a Resurgent Republic survey that found Americans only support raising the debt limit "in exchange for substantial spending cuts and a commitment to reduce the deficit."

• More than 150 economists have backed "cut more than you hike," stating on June 1 that "an increase in the national debt limit that is not accompanied by significant spending cuts and budget reforms to address our government's spending addiction will harm private-sector job creation in America.  It is critical that any debt limit legislation enacted by Congress include spending cuts and reforms that are greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority being granted to the president."

• Columnist Charles Krauthammer has called the "cut more than you hike" approach a "thing of beauty," "eminently logical and easy to understand," and "difficult for the president to refuse."