Carney: Boehner Should Take Lead To Avoid Government Default
QUESTION: So you said some Republicans are ready to go to default, some are not; some are willing to work with you guys, some are not. Where's the President's current view of where John Boehner stands on that spectrum?
JAY CARNEY: I think the Speaker of the House has said that he doesn’t believe that we should allow the nation to default, and the President agrees with him. And what we hope for is a resolution with Congress that ensures that default doesn’t happen.
We've made clear we're not going to negotiate with Congress over Congress's responsibility to pay the bills that it's already racked up. We're just not. And it is an irresponsible thing to even flirt with, because the flirtation itself does harm to our economy. And hopefully that won't happen, because we saw what happened when that flirtation took place in the summer of 2011.
QUESTION: But does the President think that John Boehner's going into the fall negotiating in good faith?
CARNEY: I think that the President believes that Republican leaders, in general, and Republicans, in general, do not want to see the nation go down that path again. But it requires leadership to ensure that minorities of minorities, or minorities of majorities don’t bring about an unforeseen result.
But this is up to Congress to resolve. Again, it is not something that should be negotiated, that is the responsibility of Congress to pay the bills that it's already racked up.
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