President on Sidelines in Critical Battle Over Debt Ceiling
By JACKIE CALMES
NYT
WASHINGTON — For an hour on Wednesday the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, fielded questions about what, if anything, President Obama was doing to help end the impasse in Congress over the imminent need to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
He spoke repeatedly but without specifics of private conversations and nonstop meetings involving administration officials “up to the highest levels” — White House shorthand for the president. Finally, exasperated, he asked whether reporters expected “a President Bartlet moment” — say, a march up Capitol Hill to whip Congress in line, à la fictional president in “The West Wing” television series.
“Yes,” one reporter replied.
Reality is not so simple. The two parties remain seemingly further apart than just days before the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, threatening a financial crisis that could ripple through the economy. But with the collapse last week of Mr. Obama’s back-channel talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the action has shifted to Congress.
(More here.)
NYT
WASHINGTON — For an hour on Wednesday the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, fielded questions about what, if anything, President Obama was doing to help end the impasse in Congress over the imminent need to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.
He spoke repeatedly but without specifics of private conversations and nonstop meetings involving administration officials “up to the highest levels” — White House shorthand for the president. Finally, exasperated, he asked whether reporters expected “a President Bartlet moment” — say, a march up Capitol Hill to whip Congress in line, à la fictional president in “The West Wing” television series.
“Yes,” one reporter replied.
Reality is not so simple. The two parties remain seemingly further apart than just days before the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, threatening a financial crisis that could ripple through the economy. But with the collapse last week of Mr. Obama’s back-channel talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the action has shifted to Congress.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home