BUDGET/GOP/TREASURY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Friday [7-19-19] extolled the debt ceiling as ‘a sacred element of our country’ that should never be wielded as a bargaining chip in budget talks — despite urging Republican lawmakers to do just that 6½ years ago…The president’s remarks come as White House officials, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, home in on a two-year budget agreement with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would raise the national debt limit…But as a private citizen in December 2012, Trump tweeted that ‘the Republicans must use the debt ceiling as leverage to make a good deal!’ That social media directive from the future commander in chief came amid the Obama administration’s legislative battles over the U.S. fiscal cliff with then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).”
–Quint Forgey, “Trump says debt ceiling can’t be a bargaining chip. That’s not what he said in 2012.,” Politico, July 19, 2019 2:58 pm