GOP: Obama wants 'easy way out' in debt limit hike

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- President Obama wants to "take the easy way" by requesting an increase in the debt limit without cutting spending, a senior Republican lawmaker said Saturday.

Delivering the GOP's weekly media address, House GOP Conference Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers say the president wants to raise the debt limit "without engaging in any kind of bipartisan discussions about addressing our spending problems," The Hill reported.

Tying an increase in the national debt ceiling to a reduction in spending is "common sense," she said. Previous presidents have done this, and Obama did it too in 2011.

That reduction included across-the board budget cuts known as sequestration that "the president devised and insisted on," Rodgers said. While that spending decrease has "flaws," she acknowledged, "it has cut spending."

In the current budget negotiations, Obama has refused to make similar reductions, Rodgers said.

"He wants to take the easy way out," she said, "exactly the kind of foolishness that got us here in the first place."

A Republican "bill" in the House proposes tax cuts and "real reforms to build a 21st century economy," the congresswoman said. The GOP proposal includes approving the Keystone pipeline, "fixing our outdated tax code," and "delaying" implementation of the Affordable Care Act, she added.

House leadership has not found much backing for such a plan among its members. On Friday, a vote on the proposal was postponed.