GOP leaders still cool to debt commission

Despite a renewed appeal from President Obama, Republican leaders in Congress remained cool Tuesday to the idea of naming a bipartisan commission to recommend ways to control the nation's ballooning debt.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he wants Obama to send a package of proposed spending cancellations to Congress and force the Democratic-controlled House and Senate to vote on them.

"If you're serious about cutting spending, why don't we do it now? Why don't we start with a rescission passage?" he said. "Let members vote up or down on wasteful spending. We don’t have to put all of this off on a commission."

Pressed on whether Republican leaders would appoint members to a debt commission that Obama wants to create by executive order, Boehner was noncommittal.

"We're considering it," he said.

Obama shifted to the idea of a commission created by executive order rather than by statute after a proposal to create such a panel and give it real power failedin the Senate last month.

A version of this story first appeared in CQ Today.

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