And what was it that prompted Harry Reid to say that Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor "has shown that he shouldn't even be at the table" for the debt limit negotiations?
At Wednesday's White House meeting, Mr. Cantor, discouraged by what he said was the dwindling size of the spending cuts that had been agreed to by both parties, for the first time told the president he was willing to accept a smaller package of spending cuts and pass a shorter debt limit extension—not the full $2.4 trillion that was needed to extend the limit until after the 2012.
That's when Obama stalked from the room saying, "Eric, don't call my bluff."
I think Cantor, and Congressional Republicans, should call Obama's bluff. Congress and the White House can avert a crisis by passing a short term debt limit extension, and by doing so give themselves time to work out a real solution. What we have here is Obama looking to score political points on the debt crisis, and throwing a tantrum because thing aren't going his way.
More: Here's how Cantor told it.
At an impromptu news conference shortly after returning to the Capitol from a meeting at the White House, Cantor told reporters that Obama became angry when the No. 2 House Republican announced that he was willing to drop his insistence on only one vote on raising the country’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Obama said at a news conference earlier this week that he would veto any short-term debt-limit proposal, a threat that the president renewed Wednesday, according to a Cantor spokesman.
“I asked the president, would that be something that he would consider,” Cantor told reporters. “Well, that’s when he got very agitated, seemingly, and said that he had sat here long enough and that no other president — Ronald Reagan wouldn’t sit here like this, and he’s reached the point where something’s got to give.”
“So he said, ‘You’ve either got to compromise on your dollar-for-dollar insistence, or you’ve got to compromise on the big deal,’ which means on raising taxes,” Cantor continued. “And he said to me, ‘Eric, don’t call my bluff.’ He said, ‘I’m going to the American people on this.’ Again, I was somewhat taken aback, because look, I was compromising.”
At that point, Cantor said, Obama “shoved back [from the table] and said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ and he walked out.”
A couple of anonymous Democratic aides laid the blame on Cantor, claiming he repeatedly interrupted Obama.
Meanwhile the rest of the Democrats are taking aim at Cantor as if he has the authority, by himself, to approve the tax hikes they so dearly wish for.
Senate Democrats continued to train their rhetorical fire on Cantor at a news conference Thursday afternoon, arguing that the Virginia Republican has now become the main obstacle to a debt-limit agreement.
“It’s time for Leader Cantor to make some concessions,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference with other Democratic leaders and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. “He’s the only one at the table who hasn’t yet. Speaker Boehner entertained the grand bargain President Obama offered. Even Leader McConnell has put a proposal on the table that at least recognizes the urgent need to avoid default.
“Leader Cantor has yet to make a constructive contribution to these discussions,” Schumer continued. “More than anything else, he is holding up an agreement at this point.”
Asked whether an agreement is possible with Cantor sitting at the negotiating table, Reid said the outlook was dim.
“Unless he changes and starts being someone who contributes to a solution, the answer is no,” Reid said. “He has not been constructive.”
Constructive must mean not suggesting anything that doesn't involve taxing people more heavily.
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