Rove warns GOP on debt

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece and Fox News appearance, Rove has warned that Democrats have a plan to use the debt ceiling to make the GOP look irresponsible.

He notes that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) have used mounting rhetoric to pin any failure to raise the debt ceiling on the GOP.

The solution he says is to come up with a proposal right away and not wait until June. Rove suggests enforceable spending caps rather than a balanced budget amendment which would take years to be ratified by the states.

“Robust spending and deficit caps requiring rescissions and cuts if spending or deficits breach historic norms would be better and effective almost immediately,” Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal.

In an appearance Wednesday night with Greta Van Susteren on the Fox News Network, said the Democrats are engaged in a “rope-a-dope” strategy.

“Look, I think the president is trying to set the Republicans up,” he said.    

He said leadership aides are working on a proposal but they need to hurry.

“Don’t let them dawdle … move the conversations along and get a common sense common position sooner rather than later,” Rove said.

Deficit talks under Vice President Joe Biden kick off on May 5 and the administration is looking for a debt ceiling increase by May 16, or, failing that, by July 8. Once the $14.3 trillion limit is reached, the U.S. could start to default on its bond obligations. That would cause interest rates to spike, slow economic growth and undermine the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.