'Our national leaders need to stop staring down the other side,' said Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg: D.C.'s 'leadership deficit'

In a stinging attack on federal lawmakers, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is blaming Washington’s “leadership deficit” for the failure to reach a debt deal, according to prepared text of remarks he is to deliver later Monday.

Bloomberg, a billionaire three-term independent whose name is occasionally floated for national office, says that a failure to increase the debt ceiling before Aug. 2 would leave a permanent stain on the nation’s global reputation, according to the remarks, which were released by his office.


“While our budget deficit is bad enough, what’s worse is Washington’s leadership deficit that has put the nation at the brink of default,” Bloomberg is to say. “To close that deficit, our national leaders need to stop staring down the other side and waiting for them to blink, and start working with the other side to get our stalled economy back in gear. No rational analysis says that we can begin to reduce the size of the Federal deficit without a combination of cutting spending and raising revenues.”

Bloomberg is to say anger at Washington is growing, and suggested politicians will soon learn the wrath of an angry public.

“Americans are disgusted with the gridlock and lack of compromise, and they have a right to be,” he is to say. “There will be no political gains from a prolonged crisis; no one will win. Voters will blame all the incumbents; none of them will benefit. And around the globe, friends are watching this spectacle with amazement and foes are watching it will glee. America is a great nation. It’s time our leaders in Washington start acting that way.”

As he has done repeatedly on issues like gun control and immigration, Bloomberg will call for lawmakers to seek a bipartisan compromise.

“Should Washington fail to raise the debt ceiling, the rest of the world would never again be as confident in America, and that would put at risk our position as the nation with the world’s reserve currency – a risk that we absolutely cannot afford to take,” he is to say.

Bloomberg, who weighed an independent run for president in 2008, is to say the current stalemate is a stain on federal lawmakers.

His text reads: “That the United States of America has come this close to defaulting on its debts – a failure that would have potentially disastrous economic consequences for us all, including New Yorkers – ought to be all the evidence anyone needs that there’s something profoundly wrong in Washington.”