GOP Reps Set Debt Demands

The Hill reports:

More than a hundred House conservatives have signed a letter to GOP leaders setting stringent conditions that should be met if they are to support a national debt-limit increase.

Conservative members of the House Republican Study Committee are growing suspicious about whether House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) will push for adequate spending cuts in talks with Vice President Biden. Biden is scheduled to hold an additional round of talks on Thursday.

In a letter to be delivered to Boehner and Cantor Monday, the House conservatives called for discretionary and mandatory spending reductions that would cut the deficit in half next year.

They also asked for statutory, enforceable spending caps that would limit total federal spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product.

The lawmakers demanded Congress pass and send to the states for ratification a balanced-budget amendment that would strictly limit spending and require super-majority votes to raise taxes.