to raise the debt ceiling that would also restore military retiree benefits that were cut a couple of months ago. but by this morning, it became clear to a disappointed boehner that he did not have the votes in his own caucus to raise the debt ceiling even with off sets to pay for the military retiree benefits. this morning boehner was led to hand passage of a kreen debt ceiling bill to the democrats. understand, the president driving up the debt, the president wanting to do nothing about the debt that is occurring will not engage in our long term spending problem and so let his party give him the debt ceiling increase that he wants. listen. this is a lost opportunity for america. even if all 200 house democrats vote to raise the debt ceiling, they would still need 17 or so republicans to cross over and vote for a clean debt ceiling increase. jenna: so what kind of time line?
boehner get away with saying the financial reform bill was like killing an ant with a nuclear weapon. house speaker nancy pelosi brought it up during her weekly press briefing today, and yesterday president obama hammered boehner for it at a town hall meeting. this morning boehner responded to the president s attack and opted against taking the high road. for someone who up asked to be held to a higher standard, president obama spends an awful lot of time making skews and whining about others. the american people want leadership from this white house and not childish partisanship. democrats seem to have plenty of political ammunition heading into this year s midterm elections. on top of his out of touch ant comment, there s the republican push to repeal health care reform, the unbelievable apology to bp and insistence to obstructing as much legislation as possible. for more what this means for the democrats this november, let me bring in the chairman of the
tea party. look at this. here is speaker boehner. he is trying to sound like one of them. listen to this spaesh yesterday demanding cuts. tea party style. yes, allowing america to default on its debt would be irresponsible. but it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process. when the time comes, i will again insist that my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase. this is the only avenue i see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance. it sounds sophisticated but listen to this. this morning boehner said he wasn t callinging for debalt but went on to question the president s motives. let s listen to boehner again this morning. i am not threatening default. where is the president s plan in to tackle our looming debt crisis?