Top Senate Dems: We’re Not Negotiating Over Debt Ceiling

FILE - This Jan. 10, 2013 file photo shows U.S. Sen. Max Baucus addressing the Montana Legislature in Helena, Mont. Democrats who long ago embraced pro-gun politics to gain a foothold in Western and other gun-friendl... FILE - This Jan. 10, 2013 file photo shows U.S. Sen. Max Baucus addressing the Montana Legislature in Helena, Mont. Democrats who long ago embraced pro-gun politics to gain a foothold in Western and other gun-friendly states are facing constituents angry with Washington's renewed call for a ban on assault weapons _ and they are doing so very cautiously. In Montana, the Clinton-era assault weapon ban vote nearly sank U.S. Sen. Baucus in 1996 _ and with Baucus up for re-election in 2014, gun advocates want to make sure he remembers his vote for the ban. (AP Photo/The Independent Record, Dylan Brown, file) MORE LESS
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Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Max Baucus (D-MT), who chair the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Finance Committee, respectively, drew a line in the sand Monday and proclaimed they stand with President Barack Obama in calling for a clean debt limit increase.

“Democrats are very interested in negotiating with Republicans over replacing sequestration, investing in economic growth, fixing our broken tax code, and tackling our long-term fiscal challenges fairly and responsibly,” the two senators wrote in a joint letter. “But President Obama has been clear that he is not going to negotiate over the debt limit, and Congressional Democrats stand behind him strongly.”

As House Republicans weigh shutting down the government in an effort to defund the Affordable Care Act, leaders have been urging their Tea Party colleagues to pick a more politically viable fight and extract concessions from Democrats over the debt limit, which is set to expire in mid-October.

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