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Economists Support Boehner on Spending Cuts and Debt Limit

Speaker John Boehner added to his political firepower Wednesday ahead of a morning meeting with President Barack Obama.

The Ohio Republican released a letter signed by more than 150 economists who support his stance that any debt limit increase be attached to spending cuts that exceed it in size.

“It is critical that any debt limit legislation enacted by Congress include spending cuts and reforms that are greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority being granted to the president,” the economists wrote.

Among those signing the statement were Robert Mundell, who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1999, and two former Congressional Budget Office directors, Douglas Holtz-Eakin and June O’Neill.

“An increase in the national debt limit that is not accompanied by significant spending cuts and budget reforms to address our government’s spending addiction will harm private-sector job creation in America,” they wrote.

The letter came the morning after House Republicans handily defeated the Obama administration’s proposal to increase the debt limit without any accompanying spending cuts. Only 97 Democrats supported the bill, while no Republicans voted in favor of it.

Obama has invited the House Republican Conference to the White House for a 10 a.m. Wednesday meeting in the East Room.

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