Debt limit plan: Senate Republicans eye reopening govt

Boehner’s plan would subject funding for government agencies to further negotiations.

WASHINGTON: Several Republican US senators on Thursday voiced support for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner’s plan for a short-term debt limit increase, but said it should also provide for an end to the 10-day government shutdown. “It’s fine with me, but it’s the shutdown of the government right now that’s uppermost in my constituents’ mind,” said Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican. Boehner’s plan, which he will present to President Barack Obama on Thursday, would subject funding for government agencies to further negotiations. “To me we cannot ignore the fact that the government is shut down,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who is promoting an alternative proposal in the Senate. “I think a package with both issues on a short term basis would have more appeal.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.