Democrats bash Cantor over debt talks - The Washington Post

Boehner later publicly defended Cantor, appearing with him at a Capitol news conference to dismiss the criticism. With his arm about his House deputy, Boehner rejected “any suggestion” that Cantor’s role in the White House talks “has been anything less than helpful.”

In testimony earlier Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke issued a new warning to lawmakers, saying failure to raise the debt ceiling would be “a self-inflicted wound” that would cause “a very severe financial shock,” not only to the United States but to the global economy. He told the Senate Banking Committee that such a failure would drive up interest rates, with the “ironic” effect of increasing the very deficit that Republicans say they are trying to reduce.

After meeting for more than an hour with Senate Democrats, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told reporters Thursday afternoon that “it’s time we move” because an Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling cannot be postponed. He spoke of a new, more limited goal of the debt talks as making “some progress in dealing with our long-term fiscal problems”.

“We’ve looked at all available options, and we have no way to give Congress more time to solve this problem, and we’re running out of time,” Geithner told a news conference just off the Senate floor. “The eyes of the country are on us, and the eyes of the world are on us, and we need to make sure that we stand together and send a definitive signal that we are going to take the steps necessary to avoid default.”

But some Republicans were maintaining their all-out opposition, dismissing such warnings as scare tactics. In an interview Thursday with Bloomberg TV, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, was asked whether the United States’ triple-A credit rating was worth saving.

“Well, probably not,” he replied, adding that sometimes “I wonder whether this is more of a political theater to build up the fear.”

In his floor speech Thursday morning, Reid noted that “all three credit rating agencies have already sent warning shots across our bow,” raising the prospect that “we could lose this crucial rating, which saves every American money every day, even before we miss a payment.”