US House rejects debt limit hike in protest vote

Reuters: The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $1.2 trillion increase in the federal debt limit on Wednesday in a largely symbolic vote that allowed Republicans to stake out election-year positions to bash President Barack Obama’s spending record.

The Republican-controlled House voted 239 to 176 along party lines in favor of a “resolution of disapproval” against the increase sought by Obama, a Democrat, but the winning tally fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

The Republican effort to deny the debt limit hike - seen by Democrats as political posturing - is expected to die in the Senate, which reconvenes in Washington next week. But should it pass, Obama is poised to veto it.

The vote was also largely an academic exercise, for Congress gave Obama the authority to increase the debt limit last August as part of a deal to end a rancorous budget battle that brought the United States to the brink of default and cost it its coveted top-tier credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.

Republican lawmakers used Wednesday’s vote to go on record as opposing more spending increases and to cast Obama as the architect of a massive spending binge. Exploiting voter worries over the ballooning federal debt, now over $15 trillion, is a central theme of Republicans’ election campaign strategy.

SPENDING MORAL HIGH GROUND

During several hours of debate, a procession of Republican lawmakers railed against spending they said was ruining the U.S. economy.

“This president, I believe thinks that government has the answers and he wants to give the bureaucrats a blank check to move forward and spend this country into oblivion,” said Ann Marie Buerkle, a freshman Republican from upstate New York.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul even left a contentious primary race in South Carolina to come back to Washington to vote against the higher borrowing cap.

“We ought to face up to the reality and live within our limits,” Paul, a Texas congressman, said on the House floor.

Democrats countered that Republicans were mounting a political “charade” that could again put investors’ faith in U.S. Treasury debt at risk.

“If the Unites States of America were to renege on the full faith and credit of its obligations, it would be a disaster on the international economy, but that is the course of action being advocated by our Republican colleagues today,” said Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.

Other Democrats pointed out that 174 Republicans voted in favor of the budget deal last year that authorized $2.1 trillion in new borrowing capacity in three stages. Yet there were 233 Republican votes against the final $1.2 trillion portion of this and only one in favor of it.