Boehner to bring debt ceiling to vote without policy attachments

Facing a rebellion over his latest debt ceiling proposal, Speaker John A Boehner has told House Republicans that he will bring legislation to a vote Wednesday that would raise the government's borrowing authority with no strings attached.

"House Republican leaders told members this morning that it is clear the paid-for military COLA provision will not attract enough support, so we will be bringing up a 'clean' debt limit bill tomorrow," a Republican aide said. "Boehner made clear the GOP would provide the requisite number of Republican votes for the measure but that Democrats will be expected to carry the vote."

On Monday, Boehner laid out a plan to link the debt ceiling increase to legislation that would have reversed a cut to veteran retirement benefits. But conservative Republicans opposed the plan, and Republican leaders worried that Democrats would not go along, holding firm to President Obama's demand that no policy attachments come with a debt ceiling increase.

On Tuesday, the speaker gave up, a dramatic gesture for a leader who once declared the "Boehner Rule," which holds that any debt ceiling increase should be attached to spending cuts of equal size.

At a breakfast with reporters Tuesday, Gene Sperling, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the president did support bipartisan efforts to reverse a 1 percentage point trim to cost-of-living increases for working-aged veterans - at least for those already receiving such benefits. That would seem to have indicated he would have signed a debt ceiling increase with that provision, although Sperling declined to comment on the exact legislation.

But winning a clean increase in the debt limit is a clear victory for the president, who negotiated a deficit deal in 2011 under the shadow of a default, accepts a provision last year that demanded the Senate pass a budget in exchange for a debt limit increase and now has won complete capitulation.

"I hope the tactic of threatening default for budget debates is over, off the table and never to happen again," Sperling said, adding the decision will be "a boost for confidence and investment in the US."

©2014 The New York Times News Service