GOP Leaders Not Big on Short Term Debt Hikes

The Hill reports:

House Republican leaders are throwing cold water on a proposed incremental strategy that would raise the federal debt limit two months at a time.

Noting that rank-and-file Republicans balked at a series of smaller spending cuts during the fiscal 2011 negotiations, GOP officials indicate they are unlikely to embrace a similar game plan for the debt-ceiling debate.

Some in the GOP conference have already staked their claim behind conservative activist Grover Norquist’s favored proposal to hold bimonthly votes on extending the debt limit, which would be attached to spending-cut and budget-reform concessions. Others say, however, that GOP members don’t have the “stomach” for such a plan.

House leaders learned their lesson against moving incremental stopgap-with-concessions bills during the recent fight to avert a government shutdown, according to a member of the GOP leadership.

“We’ve tried that … that was kind of the strategy on the [continuing resolution] … and the stomach got pretty upset after the first one. … Clearly, at some point our conference said, ‘We’re not doing this anymore.’ And as soon as we didn’t have those votes on our side to pass it, [Speaker John] Boehner [R-Ohio] had no more negotiating room.”

The GOP lawmaker spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the Republicans’ strategy sessions on the budget.

In an interview with The Hill in late April, Norquist — who heads the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) group — said the incremental approach would extract more concessions on spending cuts and budgetary reform from the Obama administration.

The proposal has gained traction with some members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, who discussed it during a meeting last Monday.