Tea Party-oriented conservatives, who failed in efforts to stop
the budget deal, say they may have a better chance at attaching new
fiscal restraints to legislation raising the U.S. debt ceiling.
"There are a lot of people that would rather fight the battle of
spending on the debt ceiling rather than the government funding
bill," said Representative Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican who
leads the Republican Study Committee, the largest group of
conservatives in the House of Representatives.
U.S. officials will be seeking congressional authorization for an
increase in the debt limit some time in the spring, with the threat
of a government default hanging over their heads.
It's a step Congress must take periodically that conservatives label
as Exhibit A in Washington's addiction to deficit spending. They
have waged two market-rattling fights over the borrowing limit since
2011, which resulted in Standard and Poor's downgrading the U.S.
credit rating.
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President Barack Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, reiterated
Wednesday that Obama will refuse as he has in the past to negotiate
over the debt ceiling.
But there are early signs, at least, that the Tea Party Republicans
won't be as isolated as they were in the debate over the budget
deal, when opponents of the deal were rebuffed by the House
leadership.
Representative Paul Ryan, the Republican Budget Committee chairman
who helped negotiate the spending deal, pointedly noted in a Fox
News Sunday interview that he wants to get something in exchange for
raising the debt ceiling and that Republicans would meet after the
holidays to discuss possible demands.
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Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that
he doubted that the House "or for that matter the Senate is willing
to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase."
Scalise wants structural reforms to the so-called "mandatory"
spending programs such as Medicare, the government health care
program for the elderly.
Some House Tea Party adherents are skeptical of the Republican
leadership, though. "What I think our leadership has missed is how
upset conservatives are with the party" over the budget deal, said
Representative Tim Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican.
Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson said some lawmakers,
especially in the Republican-majority House, might want to use the
debt ceiling as an opportunity to push again for changes in Obama's
health care law following the program's disastrous website rollout.
"I actually think the American people expect that (lawmakers attach
reforms to the debt ceiling)," Johnson said. "They don't want to see
the debt burden increase on their kids and grandkids without doing
something."
"There's a lot of fight left in us," said Senator Pat Toomey of
Pennsylvania, another Republican associated with the Tea Party.
(Reporting By Susan Cornwell. editing by Fred Barbash and Cynthia
Osterman)
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