(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama and congressional leaders seeking to negotiate a deal to increase the legal limit on the federal government’s debt, would need to agree to increase that debt by $615.865 billion between now and Sept. 30, just to keep the government going at current spending levels, according to the CBO’s latest estimate of the fiscal 2011 deficit and the Treasury Department’s latest accounting of the federal debt.

Given that the Census Bureau estimates there are now 117,538,000 households in the United States that means the federal government must borrow an additional $5,239.71 per American household just to maintain the current federal spending level through Sept. 30.

The $615.865 billion in new debt needed between now and Sept. 30 (the last day of fiscal 2011) will decrease only to the degree that Obama and Boehner and the other congressional leaders agree to cut near-term federal spending that is scheduled to take place between now and Sept. 30...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that Republicans will not sign off on an increase in the debt limit that raises taxes.

“The president asked us early this year to increase the debt limit for our country with no changes in spending and no changes in terms of how we spend the American people’s money,” Boehner said at a Capitol Hill news conference with other Republican leaders.

“I made clear that we would not increase the debt limit without real cuts in spending and real changes to the way we spend the American people’s money," said Boehner. "I also said that we would have to cut spending by more than what we would increase the debt ceiling. As these conversations continue, those principles continue to be in place"...

(CNSNews.com) – ForAmerica, a conservative activist group, has produced a video challenging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) not to be “chicken,” and to support the group’s “Cut, Cap, and Balance” pledge – cut the deficit, cap spending, and balance the budget.

The pledge would commit signatories to oppose any increase in the congressional debt limit (currently $14.29 trillion) unless substantial cuts in spending are made to reduce the deficit next year. Also, enforceable spending caps must be enacted to put the federal government on a path to a balanced budget, and Congress must pass a constitutional balanced budget amendment that permanently limits federal spending and requires a supermajority to enact tax increases...

Fox News has learned that Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. has still not properly resigned to the House of Representatives.

Yesterday, Fox News obtained a resignation letter that Weiner sent to New York's Democratic Secretary of State Cesar Perales Governor Andrew Cuomo. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., were CC'd on the letter.

According to New York law, it is proper for House members from New York to resign to the secretary of state. Once received, the governor then declares the seat vacant.

However, Fox News is told that the House still does not have the appropriate letter and that could delay Weiner's exit...

WASHINGTON – House Speaker John Boehner says President Barack Obama's argument that U.S. forces face no hostilities in Libya doesn't "pass the straight face test."

Boehner took issue with the administration's contention that congressional consent for the military operation is unnecessary. Lawmakers have said Obama is in violation of the War Powers Resolution requiring congressional authorization.

Boehner said U.S. drone attacks and bombing of Moammar Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli certainly amount to hostilities. The Ohio Republican raised the prospect of the House taking steps, possibly next week, to limit U.S. spending on the NATO-led military operation...

In an attempt to find common ground on a plan to raise the nation's debt ceiling, a bipartisan, bicameral delegation of lawmakers meets with Vice President Biden across the street from 1600 Pennsylvania avenue at Blair House Tuesday afternoon.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, spelled out his chamber's conditions for any increase to the nation's borrowing authority Monday. At a speech before the Economic Club of New York, Boehner stressed that any deal to increase the limit on the nation's credit card would have to cut more from the budget than the amount by which the limit would be increased. "We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions," he said. Democrats in the Senate do not necessarily share that view.

Through various financial machinations, the Treasury Department should be able to stave off a default on the nation's debt until early August...

The legal firm chosen by the House of Representatives to defend the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has decided to withdraw from the case -- but the attorney who was selected has resigned from the firm and still plans to defend DOMA.

King & Spaulding, an international law firm, today filed a motion to withdraw from representing the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives on the constitutional issues surrounding DOMA. The firm's statement gave no reason for its decision, but its Atlanta office faced protests after being chosen by the House advisory group.

The House was forced to act in the matter after the Obama administration announced it would not pursue rulings against the law, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker John Boehner says the Justice Department should reimburse the House for court costs of defending a ban on gay marriage.

In a letter Monday to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Ohio Republican says he shares her concern over the cost of defending the law in court and intends to "redirect" some of the department's money to the House as repayment. Boehner, who is traveling in Pakistan, does not say how much money is at issue or how he would force the department to repay the House...

The Republican leadership in the House stepped up its efforts Monday to defend the federal government’s marriage law, which is already under attack or implicated in as many as 10 lawsuits.

Paul D. Clement, who was solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, has been retained by the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to oversee the strategy regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), House leadership aides said.

Moreover, since the Justice Department declared in February that it will not defend DOMA in court, the funding it would have used for DOMA defenses should now be “diverted” to the House to cover its legal expenses, House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said Monday in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat...

A White House reporter last night caught pro-abortion President Barack Obama talking privately to donors using a microphone that transmitted the audio to the main correspondent press room.
CBS Radio News White House correspondent Mark Knoller had no idea the audio feed from Obama’s microphone would be fed live into the White House press room until he happened to be the last reporter left in the room on Thursday night. In the candid remarks Knoller heard, Obama talked about his private dealings with pro-life House Speaker John Bohener in the budget negotiations that led up to votes Thursday on de-funding Obamacare and Planned Parenthood.

“I said, ‘You want to repeal health care? Go at it,” Obama told supporters. “We’ll have that debate. You’re not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget.