Politics & Government
House Passes Debt Ceiling Bill, Rejected By Senate
Congress spins its wheels Friday night in effort to solve Washington's debt crisis.
The House of Representatives voted to raise the debt ceiling Friday night just before 6 p.m., only to have the bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Boehner, shot down mere hours later in the Senate.
Queens residents were feeling the pressure of a possible default as the evening wore on.
Steve Behar, from Bayside, a former lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he was worried.
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“I’m concerned that my parents won’t get their social security check that they live off of. I’m concerned that we’ll do terrible harm to the reputation of our country and our currency,” Behar said. ““You’re not going to keep the interest rates down, if they don’t increase the debt ceiling.”
According to much of the buzz on Twitter, the House planned a retaliatory gesture on Saturday, possibly bringing Sen. Harry Reid’s vote to the floor of the lower house only to vote it down.
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After the passage of the House vote, President Barack Obama released a statement through press secretary Jay Carney.
“Now that yet another political exercise is behind us, with time dwindling, leaders need to start working together immediately to reach a compromise that avoids default and lays the basis for balanced deficit reduction,” the statement read.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said she felt the Republican Party and congressional conservatives were playing fast and loose with the country’s stability.
“Tea Partiers need to stop playing games with legislation that risks a credit downgrade, which would essentially raise taxes on all Americans,” Gillibrand said. “Linking the paying of our bills to amending the constitution is political theater. The economy demands a long-term solution, which House Republicans themselves have acknowledged.”
Assemblyman David Weprin, D-Little Neck, a candidate for Congress in the Ninth District, agreed.
“What the Republicans in Congress are doing is shameful. To put it simply, they are playing chicken with our economy and are placing our nation’s economic well being in jeopardy for the sake of playing partisan games,” Weprin said.
Steven Stites, a spokesman for Councilman Dan Halloran,R-Whitestone, said "the Council member believes both sides need to come to the table and the president needs to show some real leadership and draft a true compromise."
Jerry Iannece, chairman of Community Board 11, said the vote was an "unforgivable, shameful display of partisanship at its worst."
"It is no wonder the average voter is distrustful of government," he said. "They are playing a dangerous game of chicken with our livelihood. They need to stop fighting and jockeying for power and do what they were elected to do - govern."
Nathan Duke contributed to this story.
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