Romney Breaks Debt Ceiling Silence: ‘Cannot Support This Deal’

Romney Breaks Debt Ceiling Silence: ‘Cannot Support This Deal’

Benjy Sarlin

After a week of attacks from left and right alike over his failure to take a position on the latest round of Republican debt ceiling proposals, Mitt Romney has made up his mind on the final deal: he's against it.

"As president, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced - not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table," he said in a statement. "President Obama's leadership failure has pushed the economy to the brink at the eleventh hour and 59th minute. While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama's lack of leadership has placed Republican Members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal."

Mitt Romney hadn't exactly been silent in the debt ceiling fight up to that point, but he had been cagey. Despite throwing a number of jabs at President Obama, the GOP frontrunner absorbed some criticism for not coming up with a clear position himself.

Officially, Romney is a supporter of the "Cut, Cap, and Balance" plan that includes passage of a balanced budget amendment as a precondition for raising the debt ceiling. But with Republican leaders struggling to forge a more realistic compromise over intense Tea Party protests in recent days, Romney offered only vague hints as to which side he was on. He never took a clear side on Speaker Boehner's plan, for example, which had to be pulled from the floor and revised at the last minute. Despite Romney's cautious approach, he frequently criticized President Obama for his "failure of leadership" on the issue.

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