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WASHINGTON. — President Barack Obama yesterday announced plans to invite all Republican and Democratic lawmakers to the White House to talk about the bitter impasse which shut the government and could throw the United States into default.Republicans in the House and members of both parties in the Senate will be invited in for talks “in the coming days,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The meetings come as Washington lurches close to an October 17 deadline to raise the US government’s statutory borrowing limit. Failure to do so could see the United States default on its obligations for the first time in its history and spark what the White House warns will be dire economic consequences which could spread around the globe.
The US government, meanwhile, has been shut for eight days, after Congress failed to agree on a budget to finance operations by an October 1 deadline.
Obama refuses to negotiate with Republicans on budget issues until the debt limit is lifted and the government is reopened.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner will not take either step until Obama offers concessions to his House Republican caucus.
The talks with lawmakers are not meant as a sign Obama is climbing down on his refusal to enter serious negotiations before the immediate crisis has passed.
They may also be designed to defuse Republican charges that the president is obstinately opposed to dialogue with his foes, which have been adopted by Republicans in an attempt to spread the blame for the impact of the shutdown.
While both sides are locked into their positions, and no in-depth negotiations are taking place, there were some signs of political manoeuvring yesterday that could indicate key players are looking for an end game.
Republican Paul Ryan, seen as a philosophical touchstone for conservatism in the House, weighed in on the debate, after a period in which he stayed behind the scenes, with an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal.
Ryan rebuked Obama for not negotiating over the debt ceiling — saying presidents had repeatedly done so in the past. — AFP.
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