that's the gist of this thread.
But in case you wanted to know the reporter's question and our president's answer, here is the exchange:
Q: As you know, the Senate Democrats, Harry Reid sent you a letter begging you, essentially, to take -- consider some sort of executive action on this debt ceiling issue. I know you’ve said you’re not negotiating on it. Your administration has ruled out the various ideas that have been out there, the 14th Amendment, but just this morning House -- one of the House Democratic leaders, Jim Clyburn, asked you to use the 14th Amendment, and even said sometimes that’s what it takes. He brought up the Emancipation Proclamation, saying it took executive action when Congress wouldn’t act, and he compared the debt ceiling to that.
So are you considering a Plan B? And if not, why not?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, Chuck, the issue here is whether or not America pays its bills. We are not a deadbeat nation. And so there’s a very simple solution to this. Congress authorizes us to pay our bills.
Now if the House and the Senate want to give me the authority so that they don’t have to take these tough votes, if they want to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, I’m happily (sic) to take it. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, had a proposal like that last year, and I’m happy to accept it.
But if they want to keep this responsibility, then they need to go ahead and get it done. And you know, there are no magic tricks here. There are no loopholes. There are no, you know, easy outs. This is a matter of Congress authorizes spending. They order me to spend. They tell me: You need to fund our Defense Department at such-and-such a level. You need to send Social Security checks. You need to make sure that you are paying to care for our veterans.
They lay all this out for me, and -- because they have the spending power. And so I am required by law to go ahead and pay these bills.
Separately, they also have to authorize a raising of the debt ceiling in order to make sure that those bills are paid. And so what Congress can’t do is tell me to spend X and then say, but we’re not going to give you the authority to go ahead and pay the bills.
And -- and I just want to repeat, because I think sometimes the American people understandably aren’t following all -- all the debates here in Washington, raising the debt ceiling does not authorize us to spend more. All it does is say that America will pay its bills. And we are not a deadbeat nation. And the consequences of us not paying our bills, as I outlined in my opening statement, would be disastrous.
So I understand the impulse to try to get around this in a simple way. But there’s one way to get around this. There’s one way to deal with it, and that is for Congress to authorize me to pay for those items of spending that they have already authorized.
And you know, the notion that Republicans in the House or maybe some Republicans in the Senate would suggest that in order for us to get our way on our spending priorities that we would risk the full faith and credit of the United States -- that, I think, is not what the founders intended. That’s not how I think most Americans think our democracy should work. You know, they’ve got a point of view. Democrats in Congress have a point of view. They need to sit down and -- and work out a compromise.
Q: (Off mic.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah.
Q: (Off mic.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yeah.
Q: So if you’re not negotiating and they say you have to negotiate and you’re not considering another plan B, do you think we should wait it out and -- (off mic)?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, look, Chuck, there -- there are -- there’s a pretty straightforward way of doing this, and that is to set the debt ceiling aside, we pay our bills and then we have a vigorous debate about how we’re going to do further deficit reduction in a balanced way.
I keep in mind that, you know, what we’ve heard from some Republicans in both the House and the Senate is that they will only increase the debt ceiling by the amount of spending cuts that they’re able to push through. And in order to replace the automatic spending cut, the sequester, that’s $1.2 trillion. Say it takes another trillion (dollars) or trillion two to get us through one more year. They’d have to identify $2.5 trillion in cuts just to get the debt ceiling extended to next year -- 2.5 trillion (dollars).
They can’t even -- Congress has not been able to identify $1.2 trillion in cuts that they’re happy with, because these same Republicans say they don’t want to cut defense. They claim that they don’t want to gut Medicare or harm the vulnerable, but the truth of the matter is, is that you can’t meet their own criteria without drastically cutting Medicare or having an impact on Medicaid or affecting our defense spending. So the math just doesn’t add up.
Now, what -- here’s what would work. What would work would be for us to say, we’ve already done close to $2 trillion in deficit reduction, and if you add the interest that we won’t be paying because of less spending and increased revenue, it adds up to about $2.5 trillion.
The consensus is we need about $4 trillion to stabilize our debt and our deficit, which means we need about $1.5 trillion more. The package that I offered to Speaker Boehner before we -- before the new year would achieve that. We were actually fairly close in terms of arriving at that number.
So -- so if the goal is to make sure that we are being responsible about our debt and our deficit, if that’s the conversation we’re having, I’m happy to have that conversation. And by closing some additional loopholes through tax reform -- which Speaker Boehner has acknowledged can raise money in a sensible way -- and by doing some additional cuts, including making sure that we are reducing our health care spending, which is the main driver of our deficits, we can arrive at a package to get this thing done. I’m happy to have that conversation.
What I will not do is to have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people; the threat that unless we get our way, unless you gut Medicare or Medicaid or, you know, otherwise slash things that the American people don’t believe should be slashed, that we’re going to threaten to wreck the entire economy. That is not how historically this has been done. That’s not how we’re going to do it this time.
Q: There’s no plan -- (off mic) -- you’re not searching for any other ideas, or are you --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: What -- what -- what I’m --
Q: -- let me ask -- (inaudible).
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Chuck, what I’m saying to you is that there is no simpler solution; no ready, credible solution other than Congress either give me the authority to raise the debt ceiling, or exercise the responsibility that they have kept for themselves and raise the debt ceiling, because this is about paying your bills.
Everybody -- everybody here understands this. I mean, this is not a complicated concept. You don’t go out to dinner and then, you know, eat all you want and then leave without paying the check. And if you do, you’re breaking the law.
And Congress is -- should think about it the same way that the American people do. You don’t -- now if -- if Congress wants to have a debate about maybe we shouldn’t go out to dinner next time, maybe we should go to a more modest restaurant, that’s fine. That -- that’s a debate that we should have. But you don’t -- you don’t say, in order for me to control my appetites, I’m going to not pay the people who are provided me services, people who already lent me the money. That -- that’s not -- that’s not showing any discipline. All that’s doing is not meeting your obligations. You can’t do that.
And -- and -- and -- and that’s not a credible way to run this government. We -- we’ve got to stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis when there’s this clear path ahead of us that simply requires some discipline, some responsibility and some compromise. That’s where we need to go. That’s how this needs to work.
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To Jon!
