Nancy Pelosi: Speaker John Boehner 'Wants To Go Over The Edge' [View all]

[onehandle]

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday of "want[ing] to go over the edge" when it comes to negotiations to keep the government from defaulting on its debts.

The federal government will hit its debt limit sometime around the November election, but extraordinary measures, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said, can keep the government paying its bill into the new year, when a new Congress is sworn in.

Boehner, however, began negotiations on the debt ceiling last week, saying that new tax revenues were off the table and that any increase in the debt limit must be accompanied by an equal number of cuts.

Pelosi described Boehner's approach to coming debt-ceiling negotiations as immature and irresponsible. "Last year, just the threat of not lifting the debt ceiling caused our credit rating to be lowered. This is not a responsible, mature, sensible place for us to go. We all know we have to reduce the deficit. We have to do it in a balanced way," she said on ABC's "This Week." "The speaker wants to go over the edge."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/nancy-pelosi-speaker-john-boehner_n_1530920.html