WH Rejects Linking Debt Limit To Balanced Budget

The Washington Post reports:

The White House formally threatened Monday to veto a Republican measure requiring congressional approval of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution before the nation’s debt ceiling can be raised.

House Republicans scheduled a vote Tuesday on the proposal, which would impose strict new spending caps and require that Congress give the balanced-budget amendment the two-thirds vote necessary to send it to the states for ratification before the debt limit could be raised.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced that the chamber would not recess until Congress passes a deal to raise the country’s $14.3 trillion borrowing limit.

“The Senate has no more important task than making sure the United States does not fail to pay our bills for pre-existing obligations like Social Security for the first time in our history, ” Reid said in a statement Monday afternoon. “To ensure that we meet this responsibility, the Senate will stay in session every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, from now until Congress passes legislation that prevents the United States from defaulting on our obligations.”

Reid’s move came as negotiations over the debt ceiling entered their final two weeks. The White House has said that leaders must agree on a deal by Friday to give both chambers time to move the legislation before an Aug. 2 deadline, when it says the government would begin to default on its debt obligations.