Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Penn., said President Barack Obama is more than willing to work with Republicans on the tough fiscal issues facing the country today.
“He’s a person who believes in compromise and negotiation… He has sought to compromise, and compromise, and compromise again, and he’s gotten so little from the Republican leadership, Schwartz said on Jansing & Co. Tuesday.
Rep. Schwartz said the president used Monday’s inaugural speech as a message for Republicans, “We need to move forward and if we’re going to… you need to know I’m going to be a determined president.”
When asked whether she believed the two sides could work together on the issue of gun control, Rep. Schwartz said, “I do believe we can find common ground. I also believe that we have to stand firmly on what we believe in.” That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy—Schwartz thinks Congress will need pressure from the public. “It’s going to be very difficult to get it done. It’s going to need a cry from the American people, saying, ‘Can’t you do something to make sure I can send my child to school and be assured they will be safer?’”
The Congresswoman also weighed in on the GOP’s plan to vote on a bill that would suspend the debt ceiling until May, and withhold Congressional members’ pay if they don’t pass a budget by April 15th. “At least the Republicans recognize that increasing the debt ceiling is something that we need to do, but in fact three months is not good enough. It really is unacceptable.” Schwartz went on to say there are ways to deal with the debt ceiling by working around the budget and the sequester.
Schwartz told Chris Jansing, “We know what happened when the Republicans played around with not raising the debt ceiling in August of 2011: the economy was deeply hurt.”
Tracy Mitchell