Cantor Statement on GOP Debt Reduction Plan

Just in from the House Majority Leader’s office:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement:

“House Republicans are working in good faith to find a middle ground to prevent default and meet the President’s request for a debt limit increase in a manner that achieves serious spending cuts and puts in place binding reforms to address our debt crisis and get our economy back on track. We have worked for months to back the President and Congressional Democrats away from their demand for a blank check to keep spending. We have fought to ensure that any increase is accompanied by equal spending cuts and reforms that change the way Washington works – and, most importantly, we will not raise taxes in this tough economy.

“Unfortunately, the President and his party have been unwilling partners in our efforts to move forward with a common sense, bipartisan approach. Time and again they’ve demanded tax increases on working families and small businesses or a purely political blank-check approach.

“The two-step framework that the Speaker and I laid out to our members today is not perfect – as we’ve said for months, we would have much preferred to vote to increase the debt limit only once, but the President and his party continued to make demands which we cannot meet – namely tax increases. In this new framework, we will achieve spending cuts that exceed the amount of the debt limit increase, cap spending for the next ten years and offer a path to achieve serious reforms through a bipartisan, bicameral commission. Our plan will responsibly prevent default and meet the President’s full request for a debt limit increase over time. The President’s reason for opposing this common sense plan is to avoid an election year fight on spending and taxes. Though he has warned Congress not to call his bluff, I remain hopeful that he and his party will work with us to move forward on this common sense plan and won’t leave the strength of the economy and millions of American jobs hanging in the balance for election year political posturing.”

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