Cantor: Need Cuts for Debt Limit Rise

The Hill reports:

House Republican leaders say S&P's "negative" outlook on U.S. debt is reason to make debt-ceiling hike conditional.

Top House Republicans are using Standard & Poor’s new outlook on U.S. debt to both call for more action from Democrats on deficit reduction and to reiterate their demand that any raising of the debt ceiling be paired with measures that rein in federal spending.

In a Monday statement, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the House majority leader, said S&P — which announced it was downgrading its outlook on American debt from “stable” to “negative” — had given Washington officials a wake-up call and that Republicans would not sign off on any debt limit increase that was not accompanied by “serious reforms.”

“For decades, Washington has blindly increased the debt limit while doing little to stop spending money that it doesn’t have, a dangerous pattern that must end,” Cantor said. “As S&P made clear, getting spending and our deficit under control can no longer be put off for another day.”

For his part, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the House Budget Committee chairman, contrasted the fiscal 2012 budget he largely crafted with that of President Obama, while also calling for more concrete action from the White House on deficit reduction.

“The failure to advance solutions threatens not only the livelihoods of future generations, but also the economic security of American families today,” Ryan said in a statement. “The president and his party's leaders must put an end to empty promises and work with us to avert this looming economic crisis.”

The statements from Cantor and Ryan appear to illustrate that the S&P announcement has done little to change the partisan divide in Washington over deficit reduction.