White House Refuses to Trade Budget for Debt Ceiling Hike

President Obama will not call for Senate Democrats to pass a budget in exchange for a debt ceiling hike, his spokesman said while refusing to say if a budget is important to managing the nation’s financial affairs.

“Congress — the Senate, the House — should act to raise the debt ceiling,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today during the press briefing. “This is not a negotiation the White House is going to have.”

Asked if the budget — which has not been passed in over three years — “is more important than ever,” Carney replied, “That’s a question for the Senate.”

Carney was responding to a report from The Washington Examiner’s Byron York that Senate Republicans are moving to demand a budget from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

“I think it should be a firm principle that we should not raise the debt ceiling until we have a plan on how the new borrowed money will be spent,” Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, told Byron yesterday.

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