House Speaker John Boehner raised the stakes in the congressional standoff Thursday, rejecting a clean bill to fund the government expected to pass the Senate and issuing a series of demands to extend the country’s borrowing authority.
According to the House debt limit “blueprint,” in exchange for authorizing the payment of bills the country has already racked up, the president must agree to a full one-year delay of the nation’s health care law, the elimination of greenhouse gas regulations, the authorization of the keystone pipeline, an end to social service grants that fund daycare and provide meals for the elderly, and the elimination of parts of financial reform. The debt limit extension would expire in December 2014—just after the congressional midterm elections. You can read the full list of demands here.
CNBC’s John Harwood joined NOW host Alex Wagner, the Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman, and New York Magazine’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells to discuss what it will take to avoid a government shutdown and a default on the nation’s credit.
Jeremy Slevin