House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has offered to take the debt ceiling off the table for one year, the Washington Post and CBS News reported Sunday, marking a breakthrough in the speaker's fiscal cliff negotiations with President Obama. According to the Post, Boehner made the offer to Obama on Friday as part of an ongoing discussion of how to avert the potentially calamitous effects of drastic spending cuts and tax hikes set to kick in on January 1. Previously, many Republicans have argued that the debt ceiling gives the GOP leverage to negotiate spending cuts with Obama and congressional Democrats. The debt ceiling is currently capped at $16.4 trillion, the rate established during last year's showdown. The U.S. is expected to hit that limit by early February, posing the threat of government shutdown and another congressional battle. President Obama has requested the authority to raise the debt ceiling in such an occasion, an idea Republicans have largely rejected. Read more http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/john-boehner-debt-ceiling_n_2312967.html
