October 7th, 2013

Sen. Schumer predicts Speaker Boehner will “break with Tea Party”

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that Speaker Boehner will “break with the Tea Party,” when the debt ceiling gets closer, asserting that the Tea Party planned the government shutdown for months. When Cuomo asked him about the Speaker’s leadership, Senator Schumer compares him to the Senate leadership and how Republicans in that chamber voted to keep the government running.

“The problem here is Speaker Boehner, so far, has been unwilling to break with the Tea Party, but let me make a prediction. When we get close to debt ceiling, he will have to break with the Tea Party,” Senator Schumer said.

“Here’s his most important accomplishment, President Obama’s, whether you like it or not. And they’re saying get rid of it or we’ll hurt America?,” Senator Schumer added.

“I’d like to compare [Speaker Boehner] to the Republican leadership in the Senate, many of whom have Tea Party opponents,” Senator Schumer said. “But they figured out a way to let our bill go forward – they didn’t vote for Obamacare; they’re against it. But they at least said we’re not going to shut down the government to get our way. And 25 of the 44 Republicans, when the bill came to the floor, voted for a path to open the government. That showed some courage. Where’s Speaker Boehner’s? I hope he will summon the same.”

On allowing a six week continuing resolution to negotiate on debt ceiling, Schumer said, “That will be up to the markets. I don’t think it works. If the markets think we haven’t solved this problem… if those… government securities start to be undervalued, the thing could collapse even before we reach the debt ceiling…. The answer here: do a clean debt ceiling, it’s too dangerous not to, and then we’ll negotiate on a budget on any issues they want. And they win a lot of those arguments.”

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