Manufacturing group: Raise the debt ceiling, stat

Michael Frohlich, a NAM spokesman, told The Hill in an email that the group had long stressed that any deficit deal should not increase taxes on manufacturers. But he added that NAM would not express a preference at this time between the competing debt limit plans offered by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

“At this point, things are so fluid, we are in a wait-and-see pattern,” Frohlich said.

Neither leader’s plan contains new tax revenues, but, unlike Reid’s framework, Boehner’s proposal would require a second debt-limit increase before the 2012 election.

Conservative and business-minded groups have split in recent days on the Boehner plan, which is being reworked after the Congressional Budget Office found it did not cut as much spending as expected.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform are among the outfits supporting the Boehner approach, while Club for Growth, Heritage Action and the National Taxpayers Union have come out strongly against it. 

Also, some House Republicans were miffed recently that staff members on the conservative Republican Study Committee tried to rally opposition among conservative groups to the Boehner plan.