Sen. Johnson Favors Short Debt Ceiling Postponement

Congressional Republicans are indicating they may favor a short term solution to the nation’s debt ceiling. Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson says a temporary deal could buy the nation time, and allow for debate on a long term agreement, but the issue is still highly partisan.

The nation hit its debt limit on New Year’s Eve. In order to pay its creditors, the Treasury Department is borrowing from Social Security and federal pension funds.

Meeting with reporters in Green Bay, first term senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisc) says he supports a short-term agreement.

“My guess is what’ll end up happening is we’ll do this in increments. John Boehner’s approach of getting one dollar in deficit reduction for every dollar in deficit increase in the deficit is probably a pretty good formula if you would actually apply that over time. There are some models that have been created that show you actually bring the budget in balance in ten years, which is a reasonable glide path.”

President Barack Obama said this week that hitting the ceiling could make the stock market “go haywire.”

But the idea of doing temporary fixes on the debt ceiling doesn’t sit well with him, congressional Democrats – or with the Democratic party of Wisconsin. Democratic spokesman Graeme Zielinski says Johnson is helping to “hold the economy hostage.”

“These are bills that were racked up under people like George Bush who had several unfunded wars and who had unfunded tax cuts, who had unfunded Medicare benefits. These are bills we owe. This is not new spending.”

The nation needs up to $1.25 trillion to make it through the end of the year.