White House Senses Advantage in Debate Over Debt Limit

By JACKIE CALMES
NYT

WASHINGTON — With a showdown approaching over the need to raise the federal debt limit, White House officials feel they have the upper hand over Congressional Republicans who want to use the debate on the measure to force deep spending cuts, people familiar with administration’s thinking say.

While Republican leaders say they hope to avoid a market-shaking crisis, many conservatives in the party are insisting on using the issue as leverage to extract big if unspecified concessions from President Obama, leaving Wall Street concerned and even some Democrats wondering if the White House is in for a more dangerous fight than it anticipates.

If Congress does not act to increase the Treasury Department’s legal borrowing limit, which could be reached as soon as the first week of April, the government would face problems refinancing its debt and raising money for its operations, and, at worst, would risk default.

Some Democrats say the White House’s hopes of getting Congress to approve a “clean” increase in the government’s borrowing authority — without any additional measures to cut the budget deficit — are unrealistic with the House in Republican hands. Republican leaders’ ability to rein in their members, however, is in question after the past week, which saw internal turmoil in the party over issues like a Tea Party-backed demand for deeper spending cuts this year.

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