Pelosi digs in to the left of Obama in debt battle [View All]

Source: Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Pelosi digs in to the left of Obama in debt battle

Issuing an ultimatum to a president of her own party, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is betting that she can recapture the speakership in a high-stakes game of brinkmanship over raising the $14 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2.

The San Francisco Democrat has told President Obama that House Democrats will not vote for any trims to future benefits in Medicare or Social Security, even a tweak to the cost-of-living index to restrain benefit growth. Obama has made clear that he is open to cuts in entitlement programs.

But after being dismissed in Washington as largely irrelevant following the Democrats' loss of the House in November's elections, Pelosi now controls the precious Democratic votes Obama needs for a deal that would prevent a U.S. default that his Treasury secretary warned could be catastrophic.

Pelosi has framed her stand as "no benefit cuts in Medicare or Social Security" and emphasized that she has made that position known with "full clarity" to the White House.





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