White House: No More Hostages

[Tx4obama]

Platinum Coin Dismissed: White House Ratchets Up Pressure On GOP To Deal With Debt Ceiling

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of news that both the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve rejected the minting of a trillion dollar coin as a solution to help raise the debt ceiling, the White House issued the following statement to The Huffington Post.

"There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default," said Press Secretary Jay Carney. "When Congressional Republicans played politics with this issue last time putting us at the edge of default, it was a blow to our economic recovery, causing our nation to be downgraded. The President and the American people won't tolerate Congressional Republicans holding the American economy hostage again simply so they can force disastrous cuts to Medicare and other programs the middle class depend on while protecting the wealthy. Congress needs to do its job."

If there were any lingering doubts about how the Obama administration will handle the debt-ceiling issue, Saturday's pronouncements put them to rest. Moments before Carney offered his statement, Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley offered one of his own, declaring that "neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit."

-snip-

"This now puts all the pressure back where we believe it belongs: on the Republicans," a senior administration official told the Huffington Post. "There are no magic coins. There is no way to get out of this. We feel fine about the politics of it. We think we are in a stronger position if Republicans realize there is no out."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/12/platinum-coin-dismissed_n_2464170.html

Bravo!

Edited to add...

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 12, 2013

Statement by the Press Secretary on the Debt Limit

“There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or it can fail to act and put the nation into default. When Congressional Republicans played politics with this issue last time, putting us at the edge of default, it was a blow to our economic recovery, causing our nation’s credit rating to be downgraded. The President and the American people won’t tolerate Congressional Republicans holding the American economy hostage again simply so they can force disastrous cuts to Medicare and other programs the middle class depend on while protecting the wealthy. Congress needs to do its job.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/01/12/statement-press-secretary-debt-limit

[PoliticAverse]

1. So who will blink first ? n/t

[Hekate]

2. Oh, I think we know it won't be the POTUS. nt

[RedstDem]

3. republicans, and..

"do your job" are conflicting terms.

[nlkennedy]

4. Enjoying every minute...

It's brilliant what re election has done for this president and his whitehouse.

Notice the straightforwardness and lack of pussy-footing on all subjects.

[Larrymoe Curlyshemp]

5. K&R!

[Scuba]

6. Did the Prez just take invoking the 14th Amendment off the table?

[bemildred]

7. He did.

Well, specifically, he is making it the Congress' problem, they can do as they like.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. Previously and repeatedly

[PoliticAverse]

9. "This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the power..."

"This administration does not believe that the 14th Amendment gives the president the power to ignore the debt ceiling -- period," Carney said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/07/debt-ceiling-14th-amendment_n_2257610.html