Republican leaders in Congress postponed to yesterday a vote on their bill to prevent a US debt default, deepening the crisis over stalled efforts to keep the world’s biggest economy from running out of cash.
Just five days before Tuesday’s deadline when the US Treasury says it will run out of funds, red-faced Republicans late on Thursday were forced to scuttle a vote on a House of Representatives bill to avert a potentially disastrous debt default.
House Speaker John Boehner was dealt an embarrassing blow over the delay caused by insufficient support for the measure from several members of his restive Republican caucus.
Facing stiffer-than-expected resistance from unruly conservative “Tea Party” lawmakers to the measure, Republicans said late on Thursday that they would wait a day before trying to hold a vote on it.
Reports said Republicans would try to make revisions to the bill to garner more support for what was just the latest in a long list of 11th-hour efforts to keep the US government solvent.
Boehner met one-by-one during the course of the day with Republican lawmakers to shore up support for his two-step plan to raise the US$14.3 trillion debt ceiling enough to avert default for at least six months. However, several of his fellow party members dug in their heels.
Boehner is “asking for my vote,” Representative Louie Gohmert said as he emerged after an arm-twisting session with the top House Republican.
“I’m still where I was before. I’m still a bloodied-and-beaten ‘no,’” Gohmnert said.
Markets around the world remained on edge yesterday, on fears that a fragile economic recovery nurtured since the 2008 global financial crisis could be at risk if the US fails to reach a deal to avert a potentially cataclysmic debt default.
In Asia, Tokyo ended 0.69 percent, or 68.32 points, lower at 9,833.03, while Sydney lost 0.88 percent, or 39.2 points, to close at 4,424.6 and Seoul shed 1.05 percent, or 22.64 points, to close at 2,133.21.
Meanwhile, IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned on Thursday that failure to resolve the debt crisis would likely raise “doubts” about the US dollar’s status as the world’s prime reserve currency.
“It would probably entail a decline of the dollar relative to other currencies, and probably doubts in the mind of those people who reserve currencies as to whether the dollar is effectively the ultimate and prime currency of reserve,” she told PBS television in an interview.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2