The Hill News

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggested Sunday that Congress make short-term increases to the debt limit in exchange for similar levels of spending cuts.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" the 2012 presidential hopeful and former Speaker of the House said Congress should focus on passing "very very short debt ceiling increases in small amounts" setting up votes every three weeks while extracting some "savings that the president couldn't possibly veto."

While Gingrich said the nation should "avoid default if you possibly can" he warned lawmakers to not give the Obama administration a blank check and not agree to to an automatic debt ceiling.

He praised the approach of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) who he said has come up with "a very good formula" in pressing President Obama to commit to spending cuts.

He said Republicans should make a deal to "provide the same dollar value in debt ceiling increase as you give in spending cuts." 

! So if there are $500 billion in spending cuts over the next five years then there should be a reciprocal $500 billion increase in the debt ceiling, an approach which Gingrich acknowledged would create the need for frequent debt-ceiling increase votes. 

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