WASHINGTON — Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was not initially in favor of the shot-term debt-limit increase proposed by House Republican leadership.
“I think a six-week lift of the debt ceiling is not the right way to go,” Pelosi said at a Thursday press conference. “I think we should go one year so that there’s some certainty in the markets.”
“Nonetheless,” she said, “let’s see what they have to offer,” noting that the exact proposal had not yet been made clear to Democrats.
Republican leadership told reporters Thursday morning that they planned to propose a deal to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks and agree to go to a conference committee on the budget, in exchange for some concessions in re-opening the government.
Pelosi sounded miffed that while Republicans had outlined the plan to the press, they had not done so to Democrats.
“We haven’t even had the courtesy of them saying, ‘this is sort of what we’re looking at’ … we haven’t seen anything like that,” she said.
“They may not know what it is yet themselves,” she said of the Republicans’ plan. “It’s really hard to negotiate with people who are still negotiating among themselves.”
Pelosi’s support could be necessary if some members of the Republican conference balk at the deal, in which case Republicans would need to seek the support of Democrats.