Sen. Charles E. Schumer had a prediction on Monday on how House Speaker John A. Boehner will proceed on the government shutdown: He’ll cave, Mr. Schumer said.
“Let me make a prediction,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “When we get close to the debt ceiling, he will have to break with the tea party.”
The Treasury Department’s dire warnings about financial collapse will sink in, and Mr. Boehner will take action — with or without the backing of his hard-core conservative colleagues, Mr. Schumer said.
“The debt ceiling is such a calamitous possibility that you could go into a recession or even a depression worse than Lehman Brothers and AIG in 2008, that he will have no choice,” Mr. Schumer said in report by The Hill.
That statement contrasts with what Mr. Boehner insisted on Sunday — that he would not raise the debt ceiling unless Democrats and the White House first agree to slow spending. But it also comes as The Washington Post reported a few days ago that Mr. Boehner was indeed reaching out on Capitol Hill to strike debt and budget deals with Democrats, over the heads of his Republican colleagues and despite tea party objections.
His aide said then: Mr. Boehner agrees that the nation cannot go into default on the debt and that the House will take whatever actions necessary to ensure that scenario does not come to pass.
SEE ALSO: Debt fight to escalate shutdown showdown; Boehner attaches Obamacare strings
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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