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A day after Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a backup plan to raise the debt ceiling if a deficit reduction deal with Democrats can't be reached, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor torpedoed the proposal, saying it doesn't have any chance of passing in his chamber.

"Currently, there is not a single debt limit proposal that can pass the House of Representatives," Cantor, R-Virginia, said in a statement Wednesday. Though the statement does not directly refer to McConnell's plan, Republican congressional sources said Cantor intended to make the point that the Senate GOP leader's proposal is not going anywhere in the House.

McConnell's proposal would allow President Barack Obama to make three short-term increases to the debt ceiling between now and the end of 2012. Congress could vote against an increase by passing a resolution of disapproval to Obama's move, and the president could then veto the resolution of disapproval.

It would be unlikely that Congress would have enough votes to override the presidential veto, and the debt ceiling increases would stand.

Negotiations between Obama and congressional leaders from both parties have bogged down over the issue of tax increases. Obama wants increased tax revenue to be part of a deal, while Republicans refuse to consider any higher tax rates.

In an interview Wednesday, McConnell told WHAS radio in his home state of Kentucky that his proposal was necessary because an acceptable deficit reduction deal was proving unattainable and the United States must avoid a default that would be "bad for Republicans."

"Given a choice between a bad deal and avoiding default, I choose to avoid default," McConnell said, adding, "If we were to go into default ... the practical effect of that will be to allow the president to make us co-owners of a bad economy."

He also said defaulting is "completely and totally unacceptable, and it's not going to happen."

However, House conservatives strongly opposed McConnell's framework, which would give Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling without requiring any spending cuts in return. McConnell's plan stipulated the president list spending reductions in return for the increase in borrowing authority, but did not require the cuts be enacted.

Prominent conservatives including Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson criticized the McConnell plan, and a House GOP leadership aide said the proposal "falls short of (House Speaker John Boehner's) pledge that any increase must have spending cuts equal to the increase."

In response to Cantor's statement effectively killing the McConnell plan, Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Republicans were undermining all efforts for a deficit deal, even their own. More at http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/13/debt.talks.republicans/index.ht
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