Cantor hits back at Schumer on debt

House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) scoffed at Sen.
Charles Schumer’s suggestion that financial markets will crumble if the debt
ceiling isn’t raised by July 15.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered the warning on Monday, saying
markets would suffer dire consequences if Congress didn’t soon act.

Cantor on Tuesday “questioned” Schumer’s contention, saying
that he spoke with Wall Street traders and financial analysts who told him to
“hold the line of cutting spending” and “don’t give in.”

“I heard so much to the contrary in his hometown of New York
City today, yesterday that I just question that,” Cantor, who on Tuesday ran
the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange, told a gaggle of reporters
gathered in his Capitol office.

Cantor made the remarks shortly before heading to the Blair
House for a second meeting with a commission of lawmakers led by Vice President
Biden that is trying to reach a deal on raising the debt ceiling and reducing
deficits. Republicans are demanding as much as $2 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling

Cantor said he couldn’t say when the House will vote on
extending the debt limit, only that for a vote to be successful it must include
“real change.”

The No. 2 ranking House Republican, who serves as his
conference’s liaison to the Biden group, told reporters on Tuesday that
“everything is on the table” in the spending fight.

“Right now we are looking at trying to achieve results and
it all depends on what the deal looks like because we’re not going to go along
with increasing the debt limit unless we receive real commitments and we can
see a situation where there’s real results, real cuts, real reform,” Cantor said.

Cantor said holding a vote on a clean debt limit increase
was “still under discussion.”

Such a vote would likely fail, since Republicans, who
control the House, have vowed not to raise the current $14.3 trillion ceiling
unless it is accompanied by major spending cuts and reforms to lower the
deficit.

Last week, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner indicated that he
could make good on U.S. obligations until August 2nd, even after the U.S. hits
the current limit in the next week or so.

Cantor said that for a vote on raising the debt ceiling to
be successful, “there’s got to be assurances that the commitments are real and
I can tell you, as long as we are in charge here, those commitments are going
to be real.”

The Treasury Department says it needs at least $2 trillion in
additional borrowing authority to make it past the 2012 election, but Cantor
wouldn’t promise that an extension would last that long.

Some in the GOP would like to have several votes on
short-term extensions, with spending cuts attached to each vote.

Cantor repeated “everything’s on the table” in terms of
cuts, but Republicans have already ruled out raising taxes to pay down the
debt. Democrats say some tax increases should be considered.