Boehner Kicks Off New Fight Over Debt

Remember the nasty fight in DC last summer over the national debt ceiling? Get ready for round two this fall. John Boehner launched the first volley today, demanding at a fiscal summit that any increase in the ceiling be offset by spending cuts, reports the Hill. "When the time comes, I will again insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase," said Boehner. "This is the only avenue I see right now to force the elected leadership of this country to solve our structural fiscal imbalance."

The White House had a different take, notes AP: "It can't possibly be the case that the right prescription for what we need to do right now is to engage in the kind of political brinksmanship that, unfortunately, congressional Republicans engaged in last year," said spokesman Jay Carney. "So we're not going to do that." In his speech, Boehner also laid out his plans to keep the Bush tax cuts from expiring, reports the Wall Street Journal. He said the House, "in order to stop the largest tax increase in American history," would vote to extend them before the end of the year, then enact "broad-based tax reform" in 2013. (More John Boehner stories.)