Posted on 07/24/2011 4:51:57 PM PDT by bigbob
The second most powerful Democrat in the Senate warned Republicans Sunday that they are toying with a fragile economy and would take the blame for any fallout from a debt default.
On Sunday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he had six words of warning for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “If you break it, you own it.”
Republicans and the White House have argued the case that the president “owns” the economy, along with its recovery.
Durbin slammed Boehner for calling off debt-ceiling negotiations with the White House on Friday.
“The president negotiated with you in good faith,” Durbin said he would tell Boehner. “You walked away from it. Twice.”
Boehner said he called off negotiations with the president on Friday because the president pushed for increased revenues beyond the level to which Republicans could agree. President Obama said Boehner walked away from a good deal for both sides.
Republicans have said they expect failed deficit negotiations to reflect badly on President Obama’s leadership.
“[Republicans] want to make this a campaign issue,” Durbin said, pushing back against Boehner and other Republicans including Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) who have criticized the president for wanting even a temporary raise of the debt ceiling to last through the next election.
The White House has said that extending the debt ceiling at least in until 2013 will remove politics from the equation. Boehner said Sunday that the president is “worried about his next election” rather than thinking about the country.
Durbin argued that a short-term extension of the debt ceiling that only lasted a few months would be bad for the country.
“This notion that we're going to replay this movie in four to five months, that we're going to face this whole thing all over again? The American economy is too fragile,” Durbin said on CBS’ Face the Nation. “It's going to hurt us. It's going to stall our economy.”
Senate Democratic leadership has been working nonstop to reach a deal, according to Durbin. “It needs to happen today,” he said, indicating Democrats are working under a deadline similar to that of the Republicans. Boehner’s office said Republicans intend to release a plan by before the Asian markets open Sunday afternoon.
Translation: Please! Take this monkey OFF of our Backs!! :)
Sorry Reid, you brought the monkey, you feed the monkey, you own the monkey.
Ironic coming from the Party that hasn't even had a budget in over two years.
It’ll work on the American electorate.
Dick Durbin before he dicks you.
This is the same Dick Durbin who called our soldiers “Nazis.” He comes from the Cesspool of the Mid-West, Illinois. What credibility can this jerk possibly have?
LOL, that’s what I’m talking about!
Like hell, Turban.
“Wrong Turdbin,You already broke it!”
Hey, dickie, a turd by any other name is still a turd.
Yeah, I watched the crap this morning when Durbin was allowed to go off on Boehner, with no rebuttal from the Speaker or a representative. I think CBS thought they were being objective by first letting the White House representative speak, and then a Republican Senator (not even someone from the House), and then a followup from Durbin. What a sham. Then, their focus was on negotiations in the Senate, which makes no sense at all.
Today, Fox News was beating the “default” drum in every segment. Chris Wallace and Harris Faulkner were the worst. I guess these jewels of glittering ignorance don’t think that $200 BILLION flowing out of the shrinking economy of the USA to the spend-thrifts in D.C. is enough. Most sane people would disagree.
Bush’s fault.
Durbin, Reid, it’s all the same. They own it. Let them spout whatever they want.
I’ll take conservative voters remembering the issue for 1000 Alex!
Which is silly because Harry Reid will not let C C & B to the floor because it will pass according to the American Thinker, their should be no negotiations as of yet, because they haven't done their job and voted on anything. It screams of their ignorance of the process, how these bicameral bodies are supposed to work and how Harry Reid really is the monkey wench in the gear box.
IDIOT! The people own the economy!
“The president negotiated with you in good faith,” Durbin said he would tell Boehner.
LMFAO Dick. Constantly changing the rules and iconstant public demagoguery is not “good faith.”
I think he kept it off so as not to be a referendum against Senate Democrats in the elections.
The little bitch is going to lose a lot more than that.
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