Jordan: House conservatives won’t back McConnell plan

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio) criticized Sen. Mitch McConnell’s fallback plan to raise the nation’s debt limit, saying the proposal would not gain the backing of House conservatives.

“They’re not going to support the McConnell plan. I’m not going to support the McConnell plan,” said Jordan on Fox News Sunday.

“This is just kicking the can down the road.”

{mosads}Jordan left open the possibility that the plan could pass the House, but argued it would need Democratic support to do so.

“The McConnell plan doesn’t have 218 Republican votes,” he said.

He pushed instead for an alternative “cut, cap and balance” bill. “Let’s, for the first time in American history, pass a balanced-budget
amendment through the House and the Senate, [and] send it to [the] states,” Jordan said.

The cut, cap and balance bill would cut $111 billion in fiscal 2012, cap spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product by 2021 and require passage of a balanced budget amendment before raising the debt limit. House leaders are expected to present the bill for a vote this week.

Appearing with Jordan on Fox News Sunday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) similarly downplayed the McConnell plan. “I’m not a fan of the Mitch McConnell deal,” said Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House budget committee.

He said the proposal was a “political answer, not a real answer to the problem.”

Van Hollen however dismissed House Republicans’ plan to link the debt ceiling to a balanced-budget amendment. “No one should be fooled by this,” he said.

“It’s not going to become law. And that’s why it’s so dangerous for our Republican colleagues to say
that if you don’t do this, we will have the United States to default on
its debt.”

Jordan however defended House Republicans focus on pushing a balanced budget amendment
with only 16 days left to negotiate a deal to raise the debt limit.

“This is something that fixes the problem. Everyone understands in
two to three years, we’re going to have a debt crisis. We’ve got to do
big, bold things, or that’s where we’re headed; economists virtually
agree on this,” Jordan said. “To call balancing the budget dangerous is unbelievable.”

On Saturday, lawmakers missed President Obama’s deadline for presenting a debt-ceiling deal that could pass both chambers.

There are no meetings planned between the White House and lawmakers on Sunday, though White House budget director Jack Lew said that he saw progress in the ongoing negotiations.