The Obama White House casts House Speaker John Boehner's proposed debt ceiling plan as a Grinch that could steal Christmas. Spokesman Jay Carney and other aides said Boehner's short-term extension of the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling sets up a replay of the ongoing political fight in December, the middle of the holiday shopping season.
The Boehner plan would require "all of us to go through this again before the end of the year, in the most important economic season in the country," Carney said. "At a time when people don't want to worry about whether or not their interest rates are going to go up, their mortgage payments and their car payments and their student loan bills, and their credit card payments, especially as they're buying gifts for the holidays."
The White House time line is subject to dispute.
The Boehner plans says its proposed debt limit extension of $900 billion -- the first of a two-part plan -- would cover U.S. obligations until at least the end of January, well past the holiday season.
Republicans who back Boehner say Obama aides want a longer-term deal because of worry about another seasonal event, the 2012 election.
"They can ignore the fact that of the 31 times Congress and the president have raised the debt limit over the past 25 years, 22 of those debt limit increases lasted less than a year," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Why? To make the president's re-election campaign a little bit easier."
