GOP plan: Empower prez to raise debt limit

WASHINGTON -- The top Republican in the Senate proposed yesterday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation's debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.5 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions. Those increases in the so-called debt limit would automatically take effect unless both the Republican House and the Democratic Senate enact legislation specifically disapproving it.

Obama would be able to veto such legislation.

The GOP plan would require that Obama submit spending cuts along with his borrowing requests. But unlike the increase in the debt limit, they wouldn't automatically take effect.

The new mechanism would take the place of the White House debt negotiations between congressional leaders and Obama. Those talks over spending cuts and tax increases have grown increasingly acrimonious.

There was no immediate response to the GOP proposal from the White House, where Obama hosted his third meeting in as many days with congressional leaders struggling to avert a financial crisis. The two sides were increasingly at odds over Democratic demands for revenue increases to accompany the $4-trillion-plus in spending cuts demanded by Republicans as the price for maintaining the government's ability to borrow to meet its obligations.

McConnell said he reluctantly offered the unusual proposal because it has become clear the negotiations with Obama aren't going anywhere.

"I had hoped all year long that the opportunity presented by his request of us to raises the debt ceiling would generate a bipartisan agreement that would begin to get our house in order," McConnell said. "I still hope it will. But we're certainly not going to send a signal to the markets and the American people that default is an option."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other market experts have issued dire warnings of the effect a potential default would have on the still-struggling economy, including a downgrade in the government's AAA bond rating, higher interest rates and panic in the markets.

Obama himself warned in a CBS News interview that he couldn't guarantee that Social Security payments would go out as scheduled on Aug. 3.