REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered President Obama new authority to raise the federal debt limit without cutting government spending.

WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposal to give the president emergency powers to raise the debt limit should Congress be unable to pass a bill was met coolly by Minnesota Republicans, with some expressing hesitancy and others outright deriding the plan.

McConnell’s proposal would give the White House the power to increase the debt ceiling in small spurts three times between now and Election Day 2012. Congress would be able to try and vote down the increase each time, but such measures would only pass if two-thirds of each chamber voted to do so.

Essentially, it would give the president the debt limit increase so many people in and out of his administration say the country needs, while allowing Republicans in Congress to formally show their disapproval for the measure through their votes.

The plan has divided Republicans, but there is a fair amount of agreement among those who represent Minnesota.

Michele Bachmann, who is among Congress’s staunchest opponents of a debt limit increase, had the most forceful words for the proposal, saying, “I’ve been here long enough that I’ve seen a lot of smoke and mirrors.”

Bachmann remains a likely “no” vote on a debt limit increase, having said she’d support it only if Congress is able to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law.

John Kline, however, said he’s open to voting for a debt limit increase, as long as its associated with spending cuts and controls like a balanced budget amendment, which House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday is likely to be voted on next week.

But Kline said the McConnell plan deviates too far from the current debt negotiations between Congressional leaders and the White House. He said that’s the best way to get the spending cuts he’ll need to see in order to support a debt limit increase.

“This debt ceiling issue is an opportunity to change how Washington spends money,” he said in an interview off the House floor. “That cap and balance approach is the right one and I think its one we ought to pursue. I’ve had no discussions with the Senate minority leader. I’m not sure why he came up with that, but my own preference is to stay on the path that we’re on.”

Chip Cravaack, a freshman Republican who is witnessing a debt limit increase for the first time within the walls of the U.S. Capitol, agreed, saying McConnell’s plan “supersedes the Congress’s authority."

“People sent us here for a reason. I think it’s our responsibility to represent the people,” he said Wednesday. “This gives the president a new type of authority he really has never had before. I think it’s a very dangerous and slippery slope.”

Erik Paulsen said Wednesday that he hadn’t studied McConnell’s proposal enough to take a strong stand for or against it. He said, though, that he thinks the measure is meant to force movement on a debt limit deal that has been stuck in increasingly tense negotiations.

“I’m guessing that what McConnell is saying [to the president] is, if you’ve been running up all this spending, then you should be telling us what you want to do on debt increases,” Paulsen said. “Either way, Congress is going to have to negotiate something. I think he’s trying the break the log jam of the discussion.”

Response from Democrats
Democrats, meanwhile, didn’t take a hard stance on the issue either way.

The White House didn’t endorse the plan Wednesday, calling it a “fall-back option, not the preferred option.”

“We believe the American people expect us to do something about reducing spending, getting our deficits and debts under control,” press secretary Jay Carney said at his daily briefing. “I think the president made clear is that we are the United States of America; we should not be engaged in raising every six weeks, eight weeks, three months, six months a question about whether or not we’re going to meet our obligations.  So that still is his position.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the plan has “merit,” telling reporters. “What Leader McConnell has put on the table recognizes that we must … lift the debt ceiling, that we must do that … So it has that merit in that it says, what are we talking about here? We have to pass this.”

In the Senate, Minnesota Democrat Al Franken said he was still considering the plan.

“I’m pleased that he finally recognizes that failing to raise the debt ceiling would be disastrous for our economy,” he said. “That said, no matter what deal we reach on the debt ceiling, we also need to focus on creating jobs and significantly cutting our long-term debt.”

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com.