Debt Ceiling Impasse Infiltrates Op-Ed Pages

Tuesday, 26 July 2011 | by Pat's Picks

President Obama spoke to the nation last night, calling on freshman members of the House Republicans to put an end to the debt ceiling stalemate reports the LA Times. House speaker John Boehner followed the tongue-lashing with one of his own, saying there’s no stalemate in Congress and accusing the president of wanting a “blank check.” Boehner’s plan is to raise the debt ceiling by $1 trillion now, with the possibility for another $1.6 trillion in wiggle room if and when a second series of budget cuts are approved.

Editors at the New York Times say they strongly agreed when the president said Americans should be “offended” by the Republicans posturing. They also had strong words for Sen. Harry Reid’s proposal which would protect Medicaid and Social Security but avoids raising taxes: “It is, in fact, an awful plan, which cuts spending far too deeply at a time when the government should be summoning all its resources to solve the real economic problem of unemployment. It asks for absolutely no sacrifice from those who have prospered immensely as economic inequality has grown.”

The tone of the Wall Street Journal‘s lead editorial was markedly different, calling the president’s speech “more like a DNC fund-raiser than an Oval Office address.”