President Trump shocked Speaker Paul Ryan, after announcing support for the Democrat’s three-month debt ceiling proposal, over Republican leadership’s 18-month debt extension plan.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Trump remarked on Wednesday aboard Air Force One as he traveled to North Dakota. “We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it.”
However, it seems that something was lost in translation, as Speaker Ryan was not on the same page as the President, or even know that Trump favored the Democrat’s shorter plan.
During a news conference prior to the President’s announcement of his decision, Ryan had asked a reporter “The Democrats now say they’ll only support a three month increase in the debt ceiling. It seems like they’re trying to extract something?” And that, “That will strand the aid that we need to bring to the victims of these storms that have occurred or about to occur and they also want to threaten to default on our debt?” he asked.
“We’ve got all this devastation in Texas; we’ve got another unprecedented hurricane about to hit Florida. And they want to play politics with the debt ceiling?” Ryan aked. “I think that’s ridiculous and disgraceful that they want to play politics with the debt ceiling at this moment when we have fellow citizens in need, [so we can] respond to these hurricanes so that we don’t strand them.”
The proposal presented by the Democrats suggested a debt ceiling increase and extended spending until December of 2017. However, Ryan is not backing down, and wants to make sure his concerns are heard. As congress continues to carefully monitor the flooding, and other incoming storms, the Speaker noted, “Look many of us got the calls from the administration and OMB, who said FEMA is moving so fast that we’re running out of money as early as Friday to Tuesday,”
Talking about the President’s decision to side with the Democrats, an unnamed source from the administration noted, “we did not know this was going to happen.” And that, “I don’t think anyone did.”
Kellyanne Conway, top White House aid defended the President’s decision to side with the Democrats in an interview with NBC, nothing that Trump is a deal maker, first and foremost. “What that means for people in Washington who have been living and working in this swamp for too long is that they’re just not used to the Trump pace of getting things done,” she explained.
