Two meetings to raise the US public debt limit. Barack Obama met with Democratic senators group leader Harry Reid this morning and will reply with Republicans group leader Mitch McConnell in the afternoon. The President's goal is to heal the rift that prevents the two sides from finding the agreement the country needs. The US Treasury has warned that the United States risk a technical default if an agreement has not been reached by August 2nd. To date, the maximum ceiling set by law on US debt is 14.294 billion dollars. Too little. We need at least 2.400 billion more.
Obama's intervention was necessary after the flop of the negotiations conducted last week by the vice president, Joe Biden. Republican lawmakers Eric Cantor and Arizona Senator Jon Kyl left the talks over differences of opinion on tax matters. A new problem for the American President, whose primary concern is to keep the government going until the 2012 elections (among other things, the electoral campaign has already begun).
While Democrats would like to boost revenue by cutting some tax cuts, Republicans have said any hike to the debt ceiling must be accompanied by just as many cuts in government spending. The White House would like to limit some of the tax breaks enjoyed by oil companies, financial firms and the wealthier classes. But over the weekend, McConnell stressed that he will not accept any tax hikes.
