President Barack Obama will hold a press conference Friday to discuss ongoing negotiations.
President Barack Obama sits with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 14, 2011, as he met with Republican and Democratic leaders regarding the debt ceiling. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)President Barack Obama has told Congressional leaders that “it’s decision time" in the ongoing and contentious negotiations over measures to raise the nation's debt ceiling.
Congressional Democrats and Republicans have been wrestling over the issue for weeks, with Democrats unwilling to support any measure that doesn't include additional tax revenues on top of spending cuts, and Republicans insisting on just the opposite.
Congress must raise the debt ceiling — a cap on Treasury spending dictated by Congress that has been lifted more than 70 times in the past 50 years — before Aug. 2. After that point the nation would no longer be able to pay its bills, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Read an explanation of the history of the debt ceiling »
The national conversation over the debt limit has captured the attention of politicians and citizens around the country. Here's a look at what elected officials from Massachusetts are saying.
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown during an Associated Press interview at his office in Boston. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)Sen. Scott Brown
Brown said yesterday that the Republican leadership involved in negotiations should heed the word of Secretary Geithner, who warned that Congress is “running out of time” to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt obligations.
“It’s an opportunity to get our debt and deficit under control. This is an opportunity right now for people to work together…. and solve our country’s problems, and forget the partisan politics,” Brown said Thursday, according to The State Column.
The Boston Globe reports that Brown, a Republican, said he's willing to vote against his own party if necessary. But in remarks on the Senate floor this week, Brown was critical of Democrats' insistence that deficit reduction measures include increased tax revenues. He said:
In Massachusetts and throughout this great country, small businesses, and especially manufacturers, have been the key to our economic recovery. They are the economic engines in Massachusetts and the rest of the country. They are the lifeblood of our economy. They range from mom-and-pop stores to some of the country's most cutting-edge, high-tech startup companies.
How can we tax these job-creating small businesses and then stand on the Senate floor and speak about how awful it is that unemployment is at an all-time high, cloaking it in the language of rhetoric of "millionaires and billionaires, and corporate jets." We all know, even if we do the things we talk about, it doesn't get us close to solving or dealing with the problems. Watch video of Brown's remarks »
US Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, gestures during a meeting in this AP file photo. (AP Photo/Uriel Sinai, Pool)Sen. John Kerry
Kerry has insisted he will fight to protect entitlements in the Senate, telling members of AARP Massachusetts earlier this week he would oppose any attempt privatize Social Security or reduce its benefits.
On the Senate floor last week, Kerry said certain members of Congress were "shedding crocodile tears" over the debt ceiling debate, and warned that failure to increase the debt limit could lead to "a crisis potentially far more severe than the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009."
Kerry invoked an unlikely source of wisdom in calling for his colleagues to act quickly to raise the debt ceiling: Former Republican President Ronald Reagan. He said:
If we eat America's seed corn in this deal — by that, I mean don't invest in America's infrastructure, don't invest in education, don't invest in the research and development that is so critical to the creation of new jobs — if all we do is what the other folks in the House said we ought to do by just looking at 12 percent of the budget and cutting spending, if that is all we do, we will eat America's seed corn, and the next generation will pay the price. Without investing in our future, we could face an economic downslide unlike anything we have seen in recent memory.
In 1983, President Reagan wrote, "Denigration of the full faith and credit of the United States would have substantial effects on the domestic financial markets and on the value of the dollar in exchange markets. The nation can ill afford such a result."
Nearly 30 years later, we are facing that kind of incalculable damage. Watch video of Kerry's remarks »
Gov. Deval Patrick speaks to reporters in Springfield in this file photo.Gov. Deval Patrick
The Governor appeared on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" earlier this week, acting as a surrogate to President Obama, a friend and political ally, calling Obama's efforts in negotiations "a very balanced approach."
Patrick has been vocal in his support of the use of tax revenues in addition to spending cuts in any deficit reduction measures, arguing in a Washington Post op-ed that Republican lawmakers were adhering to a "gimmick" in the form of anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist's no-tax pledge.
Patrick said in his CNN appearance that a "serious response" to the nation's debt problem could be modeled after deficit reduction measures in Massachusetts. He said:
Our budgets are balanced, responsible and on time. We are growing jobs faster than 46 other states. Our bond rating is one of the few in the country that's gotten stronger in this time, we've had a positive fiscal outlook and unemployment is coming down. Why? Because we're not just cutting, we're also investing in education, innovation and in infrastructure, just as the President wants to do but he hasn't been able to do but he hasn't been able to get that kind of cooperation from a majority on the other side.
President Obama will hold a press conference on the ongoing negotiations at 11 a.m. Friday, and the White House has said talks will continue for the foreseeable future.