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White House rejects House Republican proposal

White House rejects House Republican proposal

The White House has rejected a new proposal by House Republicans to prevent a debt default less than two days before the debt ceiling deadline.

“The president has said repeatedly that Members of Congress don’t get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic responsibilities to pass a budget and pay the nation’s bills,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, the latest proposal from House Republicans does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place,” she added.

The proposal would reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling, but it also would affect President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

Republicans wanted to fund the government until Jan. 15 and extend the debt limit until Feb. 7. Members of the GOP were in high spirits during a Tuesday morning meeting about the deal.

“Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have been working in a bipartisan, good-faith effort to end the manufactured crises that have already harmed American families and business owners. With only a couple days remaining until the United States exhausts its borrowing authority, it’s time for the House to do the same,” according to the statement.

Brundage said the president has vowed that lawmakers “don’t get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic responsibilities to pass a budget and pay the nation’s bills.”

President Obama was set to meet with House Democratic leaders later Tuesday.

A default is imminent with no agreement over raising the country’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by October 17. The US federal has been shut down since October 1.

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