Despite
the partisan posturing, some hope emerged Monday that there may be some relief to
the week-old fiscal standoff. President Barack Obama said he would accept a
short-term increase in the debt ceiling in order to stave off default.
There
is also a plan in the Senate to cut federal spending and reform the tax code as
a part of a larger plan to reopen government agencies shut down last week. Senator
Rob Portman (R-OH) is leading this initiative in hopes of restoring services
and ending the stalemate.
Even
with this encouraging news, no firm commitment to ending the standoff is in
sight despite the government being only 10 days away from defaulting on debt
payments. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew gave a deadline of October 17th,
when the government would lose the ability to borrow money.
Senate Democrats could introduce
a bill this week to raise the debt limit, but it is unclear whether they can find
the 60 votes needed to pass the bill with no strings attached through the
Senate. Any measure to increase the debt ceiling would likely be opposed by Senate
Republicans who are pushing to delay the Affordable Care Act as a condition of
raising the debt ceiling.
There is also mounting criticism from
Democrats of Speaker of the House John Boehner for refusing to schedule a vote
on a separate measure to fund the government and end the shutdown. Democrats
feel that the measure has the support needed to pass, but Boehner said the vote
would fail. President Obama joined the fray by saying that if Boehner should
allow the vote to prove his assertion.
According to Jay Carney, Obama's press
secretary, the president would be willing to accept a short-term debt ceiling
increase in order to get past the potential crisis date of October 17 when the
government hits the $16.7 trillion borrowing limit.
Although a
short-term fix would be up for discussion, the White House has made it clear
that the best solution would be to raise the debt ceiling to last for a full
year. A short-term increase would buy Republicans and Democrats some time but would
not address the bigger issues preventing a solution.
The
last time the federal government was embroiled in a debt ceiling confrontation was
August 2011, which ended with last-minute agreement under pressure from falling
markets and dire warnings of a global economic catastrophe with a default.