U.S. House speaker presses Obama to negotiate over budget, debt limit

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U.S. House speaker presses Obama to negotiate over budget, debt limit

(Xinhua) 10:33, October 09, 2013

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to sit down with Republicans as soon as possible to negotiate over government budget and the debt ceiling to solve the fiscal deadlock.

Speaking hours after Obama's press conference at the White House, Boehner reiterated the message that an increase of the government's borrowing authority must be tied with fiscal reforms to reduce the government's budget deficits.

There will be a negotiation to reduce the nation's long-term deficits, and former U.S. presidents were engaged with congressional leaders in negotiations to raise the debt ceiling and adopt fiscal reforms, the top GOP lawmaker said at a press conference.

"We can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something about what's driving us to borrow more money and to live beyond our means," Boehner said.

Earlier Tuesday, Obama said he is only willing to talk with Republicans after the threats of government shutdown and debt default are removed, demanding Congress to pass a so-called clean debt limit increase, which means that no conditions will be attached to the debt ceiling increase. Republicans oppose this.

The U.S. federal government lurched into a partial shutdown after the Congress failed to pass a funding bill before Oct. 1, the first day of the 2014 fiscal year.

Washington faces another fiscal deadline as U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has told Congress that the federal government will reach its debt ceiling of 16.7 trillion U.S. dollars by Oct. 17, and failure to raise it by U.S. Congress would lead to a catastrophic default.

（Editor：YanMeng、Yao Chun）