Published July 12, 2011
| FoxNews.com
AP
House Speaker John Boehner speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington July 12.
House Speaker John Boehner is turning up the heat on President Obama, calling the debt-ceiling increase "his problem" and putting the onus on him to present a deficit-reduction plan that can pass Congress.
Republicans in both chambers had tough words for the administration ahead of another White House sit-down Tuesday afternoon. On the Senate floor, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell accused the president and his party of "deliberate deception."
The comments may reflect increasing pressure from rank-and-file Republicans to press for deeper spending cuts and not cave in to the administration's call for tax hikes
"The House Republicans have a plan. We passed our budget back in the spring, outlined our priorities. Where's the president's plan? When's he going to lay his cards on the table?" Boehner said. "This debt limit increase is his problem and I think it's time for him to lead by putting his plan on the table, something that the Congress can pass."
House GOP Leader Eric Cantor also accused Obama of trying to impose "greater costs on the people of this country at a time they can least deal with that."
On the other side, liberal groups and lawmakers are pressuring the president not to cede ground when it comes to entitlements. The rhetoric on both sides has the potential to complicate the latest marathon push to strike a deal and raise the debt ceiling.
Obama and Vice President Biden plan to meet Tuesday afternoon with lawmakers from both parties, following up on back-to-back meetings since Sunday. The talks so far have failed to yield a compromise ahead of what the administration claims is an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
After Obama privately offered to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67, liberal Democrats and advocacy groups cried foul.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., told Fox News such cuts would be a political and fiscal "mistake."
One liberal group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, immediately blasted out an email to supporters urging them to sign a petition to the Obama campaign threatening to withhold support in 2012 if he cuts Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi reiterated that her caucus continues to oppose cuts in Social Security and Medicare as a "piggybank to subsidize tax cuts for the wealthy."
From the conservative wing, the Club for Growth is also running an ad urging Republicans to "show some spine" and push for more cuts.
"No debt limit hike without real spending cuts and a Balanced Budget Amendment," the ad says.
Another appeal from a conservative group sent out on a "Tea Party Alert" email chain Tuesday morning urged Congress not to approve any debt limit increase.
Obama alluded to this backdrop Monday when, at a morning press conference, he said Boehner's rank-and-file were making things "very difficult."
Obama suggested his own side would have to compromise too -- something they are loath to do when it comes to potential entitlement cuts.
"If each side wants 100 percent of what its ideological predispositions are, then we can't get anything done," he said.
Despite scattered calls from the conservative wing not to raise the debt ceiling at all, Boehner on Monday stressed the importance of doing so. He and other leading Republicans say their chief objection to the current state of talks is an insistence on raising taxes, as well as the Democratic resistance to dealing with entitlements.
House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., sent out a memo after Monday's meeting saying tax hikes would "adversely undercut" two key elements of any fiscal package -- "spending restraint and economic growth."
"The last time there was a bipartisan budget agreement, it balanced the budget by cutting spending and cutting taxes," Ryan said, referencing the 1997 bipartisan budget agreement.
Boehner on Monday said the reality is that a deficit-reduction package that raises taxes simply cannot pass the House.
"Adding tax increases to the equation doesn't balance anything," Boehner said. "The American people understand that tax hikes destroy jobs."
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