The fate of raising the $14.3 debt ceiling will be decided behind closed doors now as the Democratic and Republican leadership engage in a final attempt to reach a deal that will keep the U.S. from defaulting on its loans for the first time in its history.
However, with a little more than two days until the default deadline, there was plenty of evidence of political gamesmanship in play, particularly between the GOP and Democratic leaders of the Senate.
GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell reopened the negotiating channels with President Obama in the past 24 hours, ending a stalemate created when Boehner walked away from the table.
McConnell spoke to Obama shortly before the President summoned the House and Senate Democratic leaders to the White House this afternoon.
"We are now fully engaged, the Speaker and I, with the one person in America out of 307 million people who can sign a bill into law," McConnell said. "I'm confident and optimistic that we're going to get an agreement in the very near future and resolve this crisis in the best interest of the American people."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid accused McConnell of grandstanding by saying both sides were close to agreement, saying they were no closer to a deal after meeting along with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi at the White House with Obama.
"Republican leaders still refuse to negotiate in good faith," Reid said. "The process has not been moved forward during this day."
In the only action today in the public eye, the GOP-controlled House voted 246 to 173 to reject a plan by Reid that would cut the deficit by more than $2.2 trillion over 10 years and raise the debt limit automatically in three stages, but without further votes in Congress.
There still may be a Senate vote on the Reid measure at 1 a.m. tomorrow just to get it into the record as a negotiating point.
The Republicans, led by its powerful extremist Tea Party wing, passed a bill in the House yesterday that would require Congress hold another debt ceiling vote over the Christmas holidays. The Senate rejected the measure.
Democrats charge it is a purely political move meant to embarrass President Obama and boost GOP presidential candidates ahead of the 2012 elections.
Obama and the Democrats call that idea, along with a nearly impossible provision requiring passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution, a non-starter.
Pelosi accused Boehner of selling out a $4 trillion grand bargain offered by Obama by abandoning negotiations to pander to the obstructionist Tea Party Republicans.
"He chose to go to the dark side," Pelosi said to boos from the GOP on the House floor, which only prompted her to repeat the line. "He chose to go to the dark side."
Showing posts with label Speaker John Boehner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Speaker John Boehner. Show all posts
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
House Passes Doomed Debt Legislation; Boehner Fights for Political Life
Updated at 8:45 p.m. EDT
As promised, the Senate rejected a GOP House debt-reduction bill tonight, just hours after Speaker John Boehner pulled off a legislative victory he needed to re-ignite his leadership over his party and its stubborn Tea Party wing.
The Senate voted 59-41 to defeat Boehner's hard-fought legislation, which twice was delayed this week from being brought to the floor because the Speaker had failed to garner enough support to ensure it would pass.
The GOP-led House had passed in the House early this evening. There were 22 Republicans who opposed Boehner and voted down his measure (Politico takes a glance at who they were). A couple of hours later the Democratic-led Senate killed it.
"The bill passed today in the House with exclusively Republican votes would have us face another debt ceiling crisis in just a few months by demanding the Constitution be amended or America defaults. This bill has been declared dead on arrival in the Senate," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement issue just before the Senate vote.
"Now that yet another political exercise is behind us, with time dwindling, leaders need to start working together immediately to reach a compromise that avoids default and lays the basis for balanced deficit reduction," Carney added.
Boehner's bill would have required another debt debate at the end of this year and passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution, or else the U.S. would default on its bills. A constitutional amendment requires the support of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states.
Experts say it could take up to a decade to complete the process of adding a constitutional amendment.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans this weekend to bring his own bill to the Senate for a vote. If it passes, the House GOP may return the favor and reject his debt reduction measure.
And then comes the real negotiating process, where both sides may have only a matter of hours to find a compromise on how to draw the country's $14.3 trillion debt, or at agree to at least a framework that they can use to extend the talks beyond the deadline Tuesday.
"It's time to be adults," Reid said after the Senate tabled the Boehner measure.
But with three days to go before the U.S. defaults on paying some of its bills, some lawmakers think Washington is cutting it too close.
"It is very dicey at this point. I never thought we would be three days out from driving over the cliff," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). told MSNBC.
end update
---[
The House GOP resuscitated the political life of Speaker John Boehner, passing his dead-on-arrival partisan debt ceiling measure as the Tuesday default deadline moved dangerously closer amid fears stonewalling in Washington already cost the U.S. a nearly century-old blue ribbon AAA credit rating.
The House GOP voted 218 to 210 in favor of Boehner's two-tiered measure that would guarantee the exact same debt fight at the end of the year, and calls for a balanced budget amendment in the constitution -- two measures that the White House and democrats say are deal-breakers.
Boehner tweaked the measure and scrambled for an additional 24 hours, shaking down House GOP members trying to reach the 216 votes threshold needed to pass the measure. The delay called into question Boehner's leadership and further elevated the prominence of the Tea Party Republicans in the GOP.
In his final remarks before the vote, Boehner took aim at President Obama for failing to put on paper his own debt celing plan, but the Speaker's words easily could have been meant for his detractors in the Republican ranks.
"I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the President of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile, and I put revenues on the table in order to try to come an agreement to avert us being where we are now, but a lot people in this town can never say yes," Boehner said on the House floor.
Boehner's bill will fail to get through the Senate, but even if it did pass, Preesident Obama would veto it.
For the sixth straight day, the financial markets continued their decline amid the debt standoff, increasingly blamed on the unwavering Tea Party faction which threw down the gauntlet and opposed wiping out corporate tax loopholes or restoring the tax levels paid by the richest Americans during the 1990s.
Some Tea Party leaders, like Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, oppose raising the debt ceiling at all.
Obama, meanwhile, urged Americans to weigh-in on the debt debate by contacting their elected officials. His campaign put out on Twitter the contacts for House lawmakers.
"If you want to see a bipartisan compromise -– a bill that can pass both houses of Congress and that I can sign -- let your members of Congress know. Make a phone call. Send an email. Tweet. Keep the pressure on Washington, and we can get past this," Obama said. "We are now running out of time."
As promised, the Senate rejected a GOP House debt-reduction bill tonight, just hours after Speaker John Boehner pulled off a legislative victory he needed to re-ignite his leadership over his party and its stubborn Tea Party wing.
The Senate voted 59-41 to defeat Boehner's hard-fought legislation, which twice was delayed this week from being brought to the floor because the Speaker had failed to garner enough support to ensure it would pass.
The GOP-led House had passed in the House early this evening. There were 22 Republicans who opposed Boehner and voted down his measure (Politico takes a glance at who they were). A couple of hours later the Democratic-led Senate killed it.
"The bill passed today in the House with exclusively Republican votes would have us face another debt ceiling crisis in just a few months by demanding the Constitution be amended or America defaults. This bill has been declared dead on arrival in the Senate," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement issue just before the Senate vote.
"Now that yet another political exercise is behind us, with time dwindling, leaders need to start working together immediately to reach a compromise that avoids default and lays the basis for balanced deficit reduction," Carney added.
Boehner's bill would have required another debt debate at the end of this year and passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution, or else the U.S. would default on its bills. A constitutional amendment requires the support of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states.
Experts say it could take up to a decade to complete the process of adding a constitutional amendment.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans this weekend to bring his own bill to the Senate for a vote. If it passes, the House GOP may return the favor and reject his debt reduction measure.
And then comes the real negotiating process, where both sides may have only a matter of hours to find a compromise on how to draw the country's $14.3 trillion debt, or at agree to at least a framework that they can use to extend the talks beyond the deadline Tuesday.
"It's time to be adults," Reid said after the Senate tabled the Boehner measure.
But with three days to go before the U.S. defaults on paying some of its bills, some lawmakers think Washington is cutting it too close.
"It is very dicey at this point. I never thought we would be three days out from driving over the cliff," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). told MSNBC.
end update
---[
The House GOP resuscitated the political life of Speaker John Boehner, passing his dead-on-arrival partisan debt ceiling measure as the Tuesday default deadline moved dangerously closer amid fears stonewalling in Washington already cost the U.S. a nearly century-old blue ribbon AAA credit rating.
The House GOP voted 218 to 210 in favor of Boehner's two-tiered measure that would guarantee the exact same debt fight at the end of the year, and calls for a balanced budget amendment in the constitution -- two measures that the White House and democrats say are deal-breakers.
Boehner tweaked the measure and scrambled for an additional 24 hours, shaking down House GOP members trying to reach the 216 votes threshold needed to pass the measure. The delay called into question Boehner's leadership and further elevated the prominence of the Tea Party Republicans in the GOP.
In his final remarks before the vote, Boehner took aim at President Obama for failing to put on paper his own debt celing plan, but the Speaker's words easily could have been meant for his detractors in the Republican ranks.
"I stuck my neck out a mile to try to get an agreement with the President of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile, and I put revenues on the table in order to try to come an agreement to avert us being where we are now, but a lot people in this town can never say yes," Boehner said on the House floor.
Boehner's bill will fail to get through the Senate, but even if it did pass, Preesident Obama would veto it.
For the sixth straight day, the financial markets continued their decline amid the debt standoff, increasingly blamed on the unwavering Tea Party faction which threw down the gauntlet and opposed wiping out corporate tax loopholes or restoring the tax levels paid by the richest Americans during the 1990s.
Some Tea Party leaders, like Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, oppose raising the debt ceiling at all.
Obama, meanwhile, urged Americans to weigh-in on the debt debate by contacting their elected officials. His campaign put out on Twitter the contacts for House lawmakers.
"If you want to see a bipartisan compromise -– a bill that can pass both houses of Congress and that I can sign -- let your members of Congress know. Make a phone call. Send an email. Tweet. Keep the pressure on Washington, and we can get past this," Obama said. "We are now running out of time."
Thursday, July 28, 2011
House Debt Vote a High Stakes Tally for Boehner
Updated at 11:45 p.m. edt
Speaker John Boehner failed to whip up enough votes tonight to pass his debt-reduction legislation, forcing the GOP boss to postpone a vote rather than see his measure go down in flames.
It was a blow to the lawmaker's reign over a House divided between mainstream Republicans and the slash and burn Tea Party faction that arguably controls the direction of the GOP at this point.
Boehner will assemble every GOP House member tomorrow morning to try to get the debt ceiling legislation back on track.
Word of a delay first came at 5:30 p.m. Washington time, some 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled House vote. A few hours later any hopes of a vote fell apart when Boehner's arm-twisting tactics behind closed doors failed to woo enough support for his measure.
Boehner was tweaking the measure late this evening, hoping that by slashing millions in Pell Grants that help poor and middle class Americans pay for college they could buy off the Tea Party.
The White House called the GOP "dysfunctional" because they refuse to compromise, labeling the delay in the vote "a pointless partisan exercise" because the bill will die in the Senate.
end update
---[
Speaker John Boehner implored Tea Party Republicans today to back his debt-reduction legislation, ignoring Democrats' promise to put a stake in the heart of the measure if it makes it out of the House.
"After today, the House will have sent to the Senate not one, but two different bills that will rein in spending, increase the debt ceiling and bring an end to this crisis," Boehner said early this afternoon. "When the House takes action today, the United States Senate will have no more excuses for inaction."
The Speaker is applying pressure while he is under pressure. Throughout the debt wrangling, the Ohio lawmaker has had to negotiate with his own party's members as much, if not more, as he has had to parlay with Democrats. This vote is emerging as one of the biggest tests of Boehner's ability to hold his caucus together and pass legislation.
"Listen, for the sake of jobs, for the sake of our country, I'm asking the representatives in the House in a bipartisan way and asking my colleagues in the Senate, let's pass this bill and end this crisis," Boehner pleaded.
Boehner's debt legislation needs 216 votes to pass in the House.
Going down to the wire, the Speaker got a boost overnight from the Congressional Budget Office, which determined the Speaker's retooled legislation would reduce spending by $917 billion over 10 years, crossing the $900 billion needed to lift debt ceiling. CBO a day earlier said Boehner's plan would not cover the governments debt payments (CBO also said Senate Democratic plan fell short).
Wall Street, late to the fight, but now fully engaged, also stepped up its lobbying for a deal. More than a dozen leading American financiers also wrote to President Obama and the Congress, begging them to settle the debt deal ahead of Tuesday's deadline. They fear a defeault -- the first-ever in U.S. history -- would be a catastrophe for Wall Street and Main Street.
"A default on our nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence -- raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets -- and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation’s already difficult economic circumstances," the bankers wrote.
Boehner knows his bill is doomed no matter what happens with his House vote this evening. The Senate Democrats are going to kill it and Obama promised to veto it. Obama is adamant that the debt resolution not be a short-term incremental fix. The Boehner measure would force another debt showdown over the holidays at the end of this year.
"Republicans cannot get the short-term Band-Aid they will vote on in the House today," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "It will not get one Democratic vote in the Senate. All 53 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus wrote to the Speaker last night to tell him they will not vote for it."
Ultimately, in the hours immediately after tonight's vote lawmakers from the House and Senate will have to decide what they can pass, and they will be forced to make a deal, or potentially send the U.S. economy into an unknown abyss.
Speaker John Boehner failed to whip up enough votes tonight to pass his debt-reduction legislation, forcing the GOP boss to postpone a vote rather than see his measure go down in flames.
It was a blow to the lawmaker's reign over a House divided between mainstream Republicans and the slash and burn Tea Party faction that arguably controls the direction of the GOP at this point.
Boehner will assemble every GOP House member tomorrow morning to try to get the debt ceiling legislation back on track.
Word of a delay first came at 5:30 p.m. Washington time, some 45 minutes ahead of the scheduled House vote. A few hours later any hopes of a vote fell apart when Boehner's arm-twisting tactics behind closed doors failed to woo enough support for his measure.
Boehner was tweaking the measure late this evening, hoping that by slashing millions in Pell Grants that help poor and middle class Americans pay for college they could buy off the Tea Party.
The White House called the GOP "dysfunctional" because they refuse to compromise, labeling the delay in the vote "a pointless partisan exercise" because the bill will die in the Senate.
end update
---[
Speaker John Boehner implored Tea Party Republicans today to back his debt-reduction legislation, ignoring Democrats' promise to put a stake in the heart of the measure if it makes it out of the House.
"After today, the House will have sent to the Senate not one, but two different bills that will rein in spending, increase the debt ceiling and bring an end to this crisis," Boehner said early this afternoon. "When the House takes action today, the United States Senate will have no more excuses for inaction."
The Speaker is applying pressure while he is under pressure. Throughout the debt wrangling, the Ohio lawmaker has had to negotiate with his own party's members as much, if not more, as he has had to parlay with Democrats. This vote is emerging as one of the biggest tests of Boehner's ability to hold his caucus together and pass legislation.
"Listen, for the sake of jobs, for the sake of our country, I'm asking the representatives in the House in a bipartisan way and asking my colleagues in the Senate, let's pass this bill and end this crisis," Boehner pleaded.
Boehner's debt legislation needs 216 votes to pass in the House.
Going down to the wire, the Speaker got a boost overnight from the Congressional Budget Office, which determined the Speaker's retooled legislation would reduce spending by $917 billion over 10 years, crossing the $900 billion needed to lift debt ceiling. CBO a day earlier said Boehner's plan would not cover the governments debt payments (CBO also said Senate Democratic plan fell short).
Wall Street, late to the fight, but now fully engaged, also stepped up its lobbying for a deal. More than a dozen leading American financiers also wrote to President Obama and the Congress, begging them to settle the debt deal ahead of Tuesday's deadline. They fear a defeault -- the first-ever in U.S. history -- would be a catastrophe for Wall Street and Main Street.
"A default on our nation’s obligations, or a downgrade of America’s credit rating, would be a tremendous blow to business and investor confidence -- raising interest rates for everyone who borrows, undermining the value of the dollar, and roiling stock and bond markets -- and, therefore, dramatically worsening our nation’s already difficult economic circumstances," the bankers wrote.
Boehner knows his bill is doomed no matter what happens with his House vote this evening. The Senate Democrats are going to kill it and Obama promised to veto it. Obama is adamant that the debt resolution not be a short-term incremental fix. The Boehner measure would force another debt showdown over the holidays at the end of this year.
"Republicans cannot get the short-term Band-Aid they will vote on in the House today," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "It will not get one Democratic vote in the Senate. All 53 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus wrote to the Speaker last night to tell him they will not vote for it."
Ultimately, in the hours immediately after tonight's vote lawmakers from the House and Senate will have to decide what they can pass, and they will be forced to make a deal, or potentially send the U.S. economy into an unknown abyss.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tea Party Resolute, but Wall Street Finally Freaks Over Debt Debacle
Wall Street and global financiers finally ended a schizophrenic stand on the debt shenanigans in Washington, soundly signaling with a nearly 200-point drop in the Dow Jones industrials today that a default will likely rip apart a weary American economy.
"Right now I'm pretty worried," said Howard Ward, a chief investment officer at asset manager GAMCO, quoted by the Associated Press.
Wall Street, like much of Washington, has been slow to catch up with the will of Americans, who for weeks have indicated in poll after poll that they want a debt compromise. They even would be willing to see revenues increase along with the slash and gut budget savings to get it done, surveys repeatedly show.
Others, like the Tea Party ideologues refuse to give an inch, and that is creating the unfathomable possibility that the U.S. might just default.
"As hours pass and the uncertainty builds, I think the market is starting to price in the potential that we might not have a solution by August 2," Channing Smith, managing director of Capital Advisors Inc., told Forbes. "Confidence in our political system is beginning to fade."
While investors worldwide finally awoke to the dangerous reality that stubborn political gamesmanship and entrenched ideological warfare truly has brought the U.S. to the brink of default, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office piled on with more bad news.
CBO ruled debt-reduction plans by GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid both fall short of their projected savings.
Boehner's debt ceiling plan would cut the deficit by about $850 billion in 10 years, less than the $1.2 trillion claimed, while Reid’s plan would slash $2.2 trillion over 10 years, short of its promised $2.7 trillion in savings, CBO said.
It forced Boehner to retool his legislation, while Reid said his Senate measure could be repaired with a tweak (Reid and the Senate Democrats are unified in the defeat of the incremental Boehner plan, and Obama has promised to veto it. They do not want to revisit this again at Christmas time, as the plan calls for).
The pitiful partisan parlay seems to trigger a battle-a-moment, especially for Boehner, whose shadowboxing with President Obama has exposed a much more unwieldy circular firing squad -- one that pits the Speaker against the House Tea Party faction, at times including his deputy, House GOP leader Eric Cantor, and the mainstream Senate Republicans.
Perhaps fighting for more than just his debt legislation, Boehner decided go to the stick and take on the stonewall Tea Party faction.
"Get your ass in line," he told House Republicans today at a closed-door meeting, where he demanded his caucus vote tomorrow in favor of a retooled two-step debt reduction plan.
"I can't do this job unless you're behind me," Boehner pleaded.
(There are side fights, too: Tea Party scrapper Joe Walsh has decided to take on GOP Sen. John McCain, who has blasted the Tea Party for stonewalling and touting a minority position on lifting the debt ceiling. Walsh blamed McCain for the debt crisis).
As the impasse took a turn for the dramatic away from the public eye, it played out loud and clear on Wall Street. The escapades and impotence of America's elected officials may already have cost the nation its AAA credit rating, even if the problem is rectified, ratings experts have warned.
All the markets appeared to be jolted by the desperate debt dealings:
-Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 27.05 points, 2.03%, to 1,304.89.
-Dow Jones average declined 198.75 points, 1.595%, to 12,302.55.
-Nasdaq composite dropped 75.17 points, or 2.65%, to 2,764.79.
-10-year Treasury note fell 7/32, to 101 7/32; yield up 2.98% from 2.96%
The standoff in Washington also was a contributing factor to the European markets, though the state of the local economies was big blame for a third straight day of losses.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index sank 1.1% to end at 267.05. Markets from the FTSE to the Dax -- and everything else in-between -- took a hit.
Asian markets tonight (Washington time) are bracing for more of the same, expected to follow where the U.S. financial markets left off -- in the hopper.
Congress is tasked with raising the country's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by Aug. 2 to avoid a debt default.
"Given that it is so clearly within the capacity of Congress to find the compromise that could clear both houses and be signed into law to solve this problem, I still believe that because the stakes are so high and because the American public so clearly wants this done in the right way, that in the end, it will get done," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
"Right now I'm pretty worried," said Howard Ward, a chief investment officer at asset manager GAMCO, quoted by the Associated Press.
Wall Street, like much of Washington, has been slow to catch up with the will of Americans, who for weeks have indicated in poll after poll that they want a debt compromise. They even would be willing to see revenues increase along with the slash and gut budget savings to get it done, surveys repeatedly show.
Others, like the Tea Party ideologues refuse to give an inch, and that is creating the unfathomable possibility that the U.S. might just default.
"As hours pass and the uncertainty builds, I think the market is starting to price in the potential that we might not have a solution by August 2," Channing Smith, managing director of Capital Advisors Inc., told Forbes. "Confidence in our political system is beginning to fade."
While investors worldwide finally awoke to the dangerous reality that stubborn political gamesmanship and entrenched ideological warfare truly has brought the U.S. to the brink of default, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office piled on with more bad news.
CBO ruled debt-reduction plans by GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid both fall short of their projected savings.
Boehner's debt ceiling plan would cut the deficit by about $850 billion in 10 years, less than the $1.2 trillion claimed, while Reid’s plan would slash $2.2 trillion over 10 years, short of its promised $2.7 trillion in savings, CBO said.
It forced Boehner to retool his legislation, while Reid said his Senate measure could be repaired with a tweak (Reid and the Senate Democrats are unified in the defeat of the incremental Boehner plan, and Obama has promised to veto it. They do not want to revisit this again at Christmas time, as the plan calls for).
The pitiful partisan parlay seems to trigger a battle-a-moment, especially for Boehner, whose shadowboxing with President Obama has exposed a much more unwieldy circular firing squad -- one that pits the Speaker against the House Tea Party faction, at times including his deputy, House GOP leader Eric Cantor, and the mainstream Senate Republicans.
Perhaps fighting for more than just his debt legislation, Boehner decided go to the stick and take on the stonewall Tea Party faction.
"Get your ass in line," he told House Republicans today at a closed-door meeting, where he demanded his caucus vote tomorrow in favor of a retooled two-step debt reduction plan.
"I can't do this job unless you're behind me," Boehner pleaded.
(There are side fights, too: Tea Party scrapper Joe Walsh has decided to take on GOP Sen. John McCain, who has blasted the Tea Party for stonewalling and touting a minority position on lifting the debt ceiling. Walsh blamed McCain for the debt crisis).
As the impasse took a turn for the dramatic away from the public eye, it played out loud and clear on Wall Street. The escapades and impotence of America's elected officials may already have cost the nation its AAA credit rating, even if the problem is rectified, ratings experts have warned.
All the markets appeared to be jolted by the desperate debt dealings:
-Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 27.05 points, 2.03%, to 1,304.89.
-Dow Jones average declined 198.75 points, 1.595%, to 12,302.55.
-Nasdaq composite dropped 75.17 points, or 2.65%, to 2,764.79.
-10-year Treasury note fell 7/32, to 101 7/32; yield up 2.98% from 2.96%
The standoff in Washington also was a contributing factor to the European markets, though the state of the local economies was big blame for a third straight day of losses.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index sank 1.1% to end at 267.05. Markets from the FTSE to the Dax -- and everything else in-between -- took a hit.
Asian markets tonight (Washington time) are bracing for more of the same, expected to follow where the U.S. financial markets left off -- in the hopper.
Congress is tasked with raising the country's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by Aug. 2 to avoid a debt default.
"Given that it is so clearly within the capacity of Congress to find the compromise that could clear both houses and be signed into law to solve this problem, I still believe that because the stakes are so high and because the American public so clearly wants this done in the right way, that in the end, it will get done," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Obama: GOP Playing 'Dangerous Game' With Americans' Livlihood
Updated throughout at 9:45 p.m. edt to add Boehner quotes, details, links, etc.
President Obama rejected tonight the House GOP plan that would force another politically charged debt ceiling battle in six months, calling it "a dangerous game" that reduces the American people to "collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare."
"The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach – an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all," Obama said.
"Most Americans, regardless of political party, don’t understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don’t get," Obama added.
The President urged Americans to contact lawmakers to let them know they want the GOP to stop the debt shenanigans.
Obama's address on the day GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid issued dueling debt proposals. Obama wants the Reid legislation that would raise the debt limit by at least $2.4 trillion all at once, instead of the politically motivated incremental approach that GOP House Speaker John Boehner is pushing.
"That is no way to run the greatest country on Earth. It is a dangerous game we’ve never played before, and we can’t afford to play it now," Obama said of Boehner's plan. "Not when the jobs and livelihoods of so many families are at stake. We can’t allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare."
If a debt-ceiling compromise is not reached, Obama warned that Washington alone would be responsible for a likely economic crisis triggered by the federal government defaulting on its bills.
"We would risk sparking a deep economic crisis – one caused almost entirely by Washington," Obama said, adding that Americans are "fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word."
In a brief response to Obama's nationally televised address, Boehner insisted "there's no stalemate here in Congress."
"The House passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we're going to pass another bill, one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate," Boehner said.
(Editor's note: NBC "Hardball" anchor Chris Matthews accused Boehner of fibbing when he called the House bill a bipartisan effort).
"The solution to this crisis is not complicated. If you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it. There's no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. Break its grip and we begin to liberate our economy and our future. We are up to the task. And I hope President Obama will join us in this work," Boehner added.
President Obama rejected tonight the House GOP plan that would force another politically charged debt ceiling battle in six months, calling it "a dangerous game" that reduces the American people to "collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare."
"The only reason this balanced approach isn’t on its way to becoming law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach – an approach that doesn’t ask the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at all," Obama said.
"Most Americans, regardless of political party, don’t understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don’t get," Obama added.
The President urged Americans to contact lawmakers to let them know they want the GOP to stop the debt shenanigans.
Obama's address on the day GOP House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid issued dueling debt proposals. Obama wants the Reid legislation that would raise the debt limit by at least $2.4 trillion all at once, instead of the politically motivated incremental approach that GOP House Speaker John Boehner is pushing.
"That is no way to run the greatest country on Earth. It is a dangerous game we’ve never played before, and we can’t afford to play it now," Obama said of Boehner's plan. "Not when the jobs and livelihoods of so many families are at stake. We can’t allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare."
If a debt-ceiling compromise is not reached, Obama warned that Washington alone would be responsible for a likely economic crisis triggered by the federal government defaulting on its bills.
"We would risk sparking a deep economic crisis – one caused almost entirely by Washington," Obama said, adding that Americans are "fed up with a town where compromise has become a dirty word."
In a brief response to Obama's nationally televised address, Boehner insisted "there's no stalemate here in Congress."
"The House passed a bill to raise the debt limit with bipartisan support. And this week, while the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we're going to pass another bill, one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate," Boehner said.
(Editor's note: NBC "Hardball" anchor Chris Matthews accused Boehner of fibbing when he called the House bill a bipartisan effort).
"The solution to this crisis is not complicated. If you're spending more money than you're taking in, you need to spend less of it. There's no symptom of big government more menacing than our debt. Break its grip and we begin to liberate our economy and our future. We are up to the task. And I hope President Obama will join us in this work," Boehner added.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Dems to Obama: You Gotta Be (Expletive Deleted) Kidding Me
Updated 2 p.m. edt
As expected, the Senate rejected today what Democrats said was a draconian House plan to cut government spending, raise the federal debt limit and amend the constitution to include a balanced budget amendment.
Senators voted 51 to 46 along party lines to defeat the measure known as the "cut, cap and balance" bill.
President Obama had vowed to veto the bill had it passed in the Senate.
end update
---[
President Obama finds himself at odds today with senior congressional Democrats, who are angry at him over concessions to Republicans in debt-ceiling talks, further complaining that they are being at left out of the negotiations.
Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are reportedly discussing a plan that could include up to $3 trillion in spending cuts, but would delay implementing much of the tax and revenue provisions, congressional aides said.
Democrats do not like the deal.
At an often testy two-hour meeting yesterday with White House budget chief Jack Lew, Democrats protested -- loudly -- that the White House was undercutting their re-election hopes with the Social Security and Medicare giveaways that the President has proposed.
Veteran Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, complainted to The Washington Post that the Tea Party convinced Obama "to go along with a deal that basically gives them everything they want but yet still takes away from those who are our most vulnerable."
But the smart money says Democrats have little to fear: Obama is banking that the GOP will not take him up on his his latest Machiavellian offer to tinker with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Aug. 2 is the drop-dead deadline for a deal to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its loan payments. If there is no serious progress made in talks this weekend it diminishes the chance of a comprehensive deal.
As expected, the Senate rejected today what Democrats said was a draconian House plan to cut government spending, raise the federal debt limit and amend the constitution to include a balanced budget amendment.
Senators voted 51 to 46 along party lines to defeat the measure known as the "cut, cap and balance" bill.
President Obama had vowed to veto the bill had it passed in the Senate.
end update
---[
President Obama finds himself at odds today with senior congressional Democrats, who are angry at him over concessions to Republicans in debt-ceiling talks, further complaining that they are being at left out of the negotiations.
Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are reportedly discussing a plan that could include up to $3 trillion in spending cuts, but would delay implementing much of the tax and revenue provisions, congressional aides said.
Democrats do not like the deal.
At an often testy two-hour meeting yesterday with White House budget chief Jack Lew, Democrats protested -- loudly -- that the White House was undercutting their re-election hopes with the Social Security and Medicare giveaways that the President has proposed.
Veteran Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, complainted to The Washington Post that the Tea Party convinced Obama "to go along with a deal that basically gives them everything they want but yet still takes away from those who are our most vulnerable."
But the smart money says Democrats have little to fear: Obama is banking that the GOP will not take him up on his his latest Machiavellian offer to tinker with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Aug. 2 is the drop-dead deadline for a deal to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its loan payments. If there is no serious progress made in talks this weekend it diminishes the chance of a comprehensive deal.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Obama likes Gang of Six Proposal; House GOP Moves on Draconian Plan
Updated 9 p.m.
The House passed the Tea Party-backed "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan 234-190 this evening as expected, but the measure will now die a certain death in the Senate, with President Obama's promised veto a final backstop to kill the measure.
"I think everyone's estimation is, is that that is not an approach that could pass both chambers, it's not an approach that I would sign and it's not balanced, but I understand the need for them to test that proposition," Obama said ahead of the vote.
Meanwhile, the latest polls show the GOP hardline approach is turning off a lot of Americans and is bolstering Obama's approach. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows more Americans would blame the GOP if the U.S. does not raise the debt ceiling and defaults on its bills.
The same poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans want the Democrats and Republicans to compromise -- something the House GOP, led by House Republican leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, has refused to do.
end update
---[
The House GOP is set to approve today its dead-on-arrival "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan to raise the debt ceiling, but the more mainstream Republicans in the newly reformed bipartisan Senate Gang of Six are proposing a popular $4 trillion in cuts over the next decade.
President Obama called the Gang of Six plan "a very significant step" because it appears to take a balanced approach to making significant cuts while increasing the revenue stream by eliminating some corporate tax loopholes, as well.
"We now have a bipartisan group of senators who agree with that balanced approach," Obama said at an afternoon appearance today in the White House briefing room.
"We are now in the same playing field," Obama added, noting there is still a long way to go before a final agreement is reached.
The Gang of Six, which is calling in its plan for $500 billion in immediate cuts as a down payment, re-convened after Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla,) succeeded in getting the group to agree to some cuts in health care programs. Coburn had left the group in May over disputes in how to cut into the $14.3 trillion debt.
Some Senate Republicans and Democrats have signaled they like so far what they see form the Gang of Six. Other senators from both parties say they want to hear more before endorsing the newly emerging plan.
The Gang of Six -- Coburn, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) -- presented an outline of the plan top 49 senators this morning.
"I cannot suggest they all signed up," Durbin told the Senate. "I would never expect that to happen, but it is significant that at this moment in our history so many felt positive towards what we are doing."
The Senate was prompted to take the lead in the debt-ceiling debate after House Republicans, led by GOP leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), gridlocked the negotiations with a refusal to allow any new revenue streams to be created as part of a deal.
The two leaders of the Senate, Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), are still working on emergency contingency legislation that would only ensure the Aug. 2 debt limit deadline is not crossed. The Reid-McConnell measure would not cut the deficit.
House Republicans, committed to appeasing Tea Party supporters, put forward a controversial plan that would cut spending by $111 billion in 2012 and cap future spending at 19.9% of the nation's gross domestic output. The proposal requires that Congress pass a balanced-budget constitutional amendment and send it to the states for the lengthy ratification process.
That "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan does not have enough support to pass in the Senate, but even if it did, Obama has said he will veto it.
The House passed the Tea Party-backed "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan 234-190 this evening as expected, but the measure will now die a certain death in the Senate, with President Obama's promised veto a final backstop to kill the measure.
"I think everyone's estimation is, is that that is not an approach that could pass both chambers, it's not an approach that I would sign and it's not balanced, but I understand the need for them to test that proposition," Obama said ahead of the vote.
Meanwhile, the latest polls show the GOP hardline approach is turning off a lot of Americans and is bolstering Obama's approach. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows more Americans would blame the GOP if the U.S. does not raise the debt ceiling and defaults on its bills.
The same poll shows an overwhelming majority of Americans want the Democrats and Republicans to compromise -- something the House GOP, led by House Republican leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, has refused to do.
end update
---[
The House GOP is set to approve today its dead-on-arrival "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan to raise the debt ceiling, but the more mainstream Republicans in the newly reformed bipartisan Senate Gang of Six are proposing a popular $4 trillion in cuts over the next decade.
President Obama called the Gang of Six plan "a very significant step" because it appears to take a balanced approach to making significant cuts while increasing the revenue stream by eliminating some corporate tax loopholes, as well.
"We now have a bipartisan group of senators who agree with that balanced approach," Obama said at an afternoon appearance today in the White House briefing room.
"We are now in the same playing field," Obama added, noting there is still a long way to go before a final agreement is reached.
The Gang of Six, which is calling in its plan for $500 billion in immediate cuts as a down payment, re-convened after Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla,) succeeded in getting the group to agree to some cuts in health care programs. Coburn had left the group in May over disputes in how to cut into the $14.3 trillion debt.
Some Senate Republicans and Democrats have signaled they like so far what they see form the Gang of Six. Other senators from both parties say they want to hear more before endorsing the newly emerging plan.
The Gang of Six -- Coburn, Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) -- presented an outline of the plan top 49 senators this morning.
"I cannot suggest they all signed up," Durbin told the Senate. "I would never expect that to happen, but it is significant that at this moment in our history so many felt positive towards what we are doing."
The Senate was prompted to take the lead in the debt-ceiling debate after House Republicans, led by GOP leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), gridlocked the negotiations with a refusal to allow any new revenue streams to be created as part of a deal.
The two leaders of the Senate, Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), are still working on emergency contingency legislation that would only ensure the Aug. 2 debt limit deadline is not crossed. The Reid-McConnell measure would not cut the deficit.
House Republicans, committed to appeasing Tea Party supporters, put forward a controversial plan that would cut spending by $111 billion in 2012 and cap future spending at 19.9% of the nation's gross domestic output. The proposal requires that Congress pass a balanced-budget constitutional amendment and send it to the states for the lengthy ratification process.
That "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan does not have enough support to pass in the Senate, but even if it did, Obama has said he will veto it.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Reid & McConnell Try to Find Debt Deal; Pouty Cantor Sent to His Corner
The adults apparently are attempting to settle the looming debt crisis that is already rocking the financial markets and is threatening to put the nation in the same ugly economic position it found itself in the summer of 2008.
With GOP House Speaker John Boehner apparently unable to rein in his obstructionist second-in-command, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the top leaders in the Senate are trying to come up with a compromise that will avoid the federal government defaulting on its debts by a drop-dead Aug. 2 deadline.
"Cantor has shown he shouldn't even be at the table, and Republicans agree he shouldn't be at the table," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
Reid (D-Nev.) called Cantor "childish" over his pouty explanation of how President Obama dressed him down during yesterday's negotiating session at the White House.
Boehner, nonetheless, stuck by Cantor.
"We're in the foxhole," Boehner said in support of Cantor. "I'm glad Eric's there."
So with Boehner (R-Ohio) virtually muted by Cantor's mouthy negotiating style, Reid said he is trying to see if the framework of an alternative plan put forward by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is a path to a potential deal.
But like Boehner, McConnell (R-Ky) is wearing a partisan game face today -- at least in public.
"We refuse to let this President use the threat of a debt limit deadline to get us to cave on tax hikes or phony spending cuts," McConnell said.
The negotiators are about to sit down to talks again today very shortly, and the odds are Cantor will be on his best behavior.
Cantor is a dandy from Richmond who may have miscalculated Obama's strength -- the same mistake some people in the Virginia capital made a century and half ago about another President from Illinois.
In this case, Cantor showed up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with a Ziplock bag full of checkers only to discover that the current resident is playing chess.
With GOP House Speaker John Boehner apparently unable to rein in his obstructionist second-in-command, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the top leaders in the Senate are trying to come up with a compromise that will avoid the federal government defaulting on its debts by a drop-dead Aug. 2 deadline.
"Cantor has shown he shouldn't even be at the table, and Republicans agree he shouldn't be at the table," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.
Reid (D-Nev.) called Cantor "childish" over his pouty explanation of how President Obama dressed him down during yesterday's negotiating session at the White House.
Boehner, nonetheless, stuck by Cantor.
"We're in the foxhole," Boehner said in support of Cantor. "I'm glad Eric's there."
So with Boehner (R-Ohio) virtually muted by Cantor's mouthy negotiating style, Reid said he is trying to see if the framework of an alternative plan put forward by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell is a path to a potential deal.
But like Boehner, McConnell (R-Ky) is wearing a partisan game face today -- at least in public.
"We refuse to let this President use the threat of a debt limit deadline to get us to cave on tax hikes or phony spending cuts," McConnell said.
The negotiators are about to sit down to talks again today very shortly, and the odds are Cantor will be on his best behavior.
Cantor is a dandy from Richmond who may have miscalculated Obama's strength -- the same mistake some people in the Virginia capital made a century and half ago about another President from Illinois.
In this case, Cantor showed up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with a Ziplock bag full of checkers only to discover that the current resident is playing chess.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Dems Hopeful GOP Will Go For 'Grand Bargain' With Deep Cuts
Updated 3:15 p.m. edt
Even as U.S. financial markets tank, GOP House Speaker John Boehner is steadfastly reversing course and rejecting President Obama's $4 trillion deal that would take a bigger chunk out of the federal debt than any other offer on the table.
"Our disagreements are not personal," Boehner said before heading into another debt negotiation sessions with all the leaders of Congress and Obama."We cannot allow our nation to default on our debt," he admitted.
But Boehner admitted he cannot find enough votes in his party to accept a deal. "The American people will not accept - and the House cannot pass - a bill that raises taxes on job creators," he said.
Meanwhile, insiders tell the Talk Radio New Service that some Republicans look at corporate tax loopholes as corporate welfare, but the prevailing wisdom in the GOP is that wiping those tax breaks out is tantamount to a tax hike.
“Nobody’s fond of loopholes,” a Boehner aide told Talk Radio News Service's Geoff Holtzman.
Apparently House GOP leader Eric Cantor disagrees.
"We don’t believe that we ought to be raising taxes right now on people in this recession and in this economy and they do," said Cantor, who quickly becoming the darling of the Tea Party.
The divide between Boehner and his chief deputy Cantor is surfacing, despite claims from both that it is all kumbaya in their party. Some suspect Cantor has designs on the Speaker's job sooner than later.
The Dow is down about 175 points right now. Some say it is only a taste of what is to come if their is not a compromise.
end update
---[
Updated 12 p.m. edt
President Obama urged Republicans to buck up and make the tough choices needed to cut the $14.3 trillion debt, or admit that they are just playing politics to placate the Tea Party and are not really interested in deficit reduction.
"I do not see a path to the deal if they do not budge," Obama told a news a conference, where he suggested it is time for the GOP to lose the "it's my way or the highway" approach over closing corprater tax loopholes and putting the tax squuze on the middle class.
Obama subtly challenged GOP House Speaker John Boehner to lead his party and take on the cut-frenzied Tea Party -- the way he has taken on the liberals in his party over social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"We have these high-minded pronouncements about how we've got to get control of the deficit and how we owe it to our children and our grandchildren.Well, let's step up.Let's do it.I'm prepared to do it," Obama said.
"I'm prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done.And I expect the other side should be willing to do the same thing, if they mean what they say, that this is important," Obama added.
Obama firmly took off the table the GOP proposal for a short-term deal, saying he "will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension" as as an alternative.
"If we think it's hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season, when they're all up,"Obama said.
"It's not going to get easier, it's going to get harder.So we might as well do it now; pull off the Band-aid, eat our peas.Now's the time to do it.If not now, when? We keep on talking about this stuff, and, you know," he added.
The President also sought to clear up misinformation on the issue of tax increases.
"I want to be crystal clear.Nobody has talked about increasing taxes now; nobody has talked about increasing taxes next year. What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits," Obama explained.
"What we have said is, as part of a broader package we should have revenues, and the best place to get those revenues are from folks like me, who have been extraordinarily fortunate, and that millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more, going back to the Bush tax rates," Obama added.
end update
---[
Democrats remain hopeful that the GOP leadership will take a massive $4 trillion White House deal that will cut more deeply into the federal deficit than any other offer on the table.
Asked at last night's 75-minute White House meeting with the bipartsan leaders of the House and Senate whether a deal can be worked out in the next 10 days, President Obama responded,"We need to."
The congressional leaders will be back at the White House today for more talks a few hours after Obama assembles the White House press corps for a late-morning news conference.
"We came into this weekend with the prospect that we could achieve a grand bargain," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement after last night's meeting. "We are still hopeful for a large bipartisan agreement, which means more stability for our economy, more growth and jobs, and more deficit reduction over a longer period of time."
But rank and file Republicans, led by the Tea Party Caucus, are holding the line against allowing corporate tax loopholes or any tax increases for the rich to be part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, before financial markets start going haywire when the U.S. starts defaulting on its debts payments.
"If you draw out the entire scenario of default, yes, of course, you have all of that -- interest hikes, stock markets taking a huge hit and real nasty consequences, not just for the United States, but for the entire global economy, because the U.S. is such a big player and matters so much for other countries," International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told ABC's This Week" program.
But even the threat of hurting the Wall Street fat cats that line mostly GOP pockets (though the Democrats get their share too), or disrupting the volatile global financial markets has not been enough to get the GOP to back off its refusal to tap revenue streams to take a bite out of the deficit.
"We have got to be able to deliver on this promise, that we are going to get more cuts that what we raise in terms of the debt ceiling, and make sure that gets done with no tax increases," House GOP leader Eric Cantor said right before the meeting."
Brad Dayspring, Cantor's spokesman, admitted late last night on Twitter that "tax increases that Dems are insisting upon cannot pass the House." It appeared to confirm Democrats complaints that the GOP leadership was being rolled by its rank and file.
So in an about-face, Republicans are insisting that they want to take a smaller debt reduction framework that cuts around $2.5 trillion that they claim Vice President Biden had offered in his negotiations.
However, Republicans, led by Cantor, walked away from those talks and now seem to be retreating to them in an effort to protect corporate tax loopholes and keep the wealthiest Americans from paying more in taxes.
Democrats scoffed at the pull back, with Senate Democratic Policy spokesman Brian Fallon questioning on Twitter if the Biden deal was so good, "Then why did Cantor quit?"
The proposed cuts in funding come as thousands of government jobs are already being lost, forcing some communities and states to consider raising taxes to pay for basic services.
The taxpayers have watched the federal debt skyrocket under the last two Presidents. The national debt was $5.73 trillion when ex-President George W. Bush took office, but when he left, it was $10.7 trillion, ballooning by $4.97 trillion, according to fact-checking service PolitiFact.
The federal debt now stands at $14.3 trillion under Obama, a result of the Wall Street and auto industry bailouts, a massive stimulus plan, the loss of middle class revenue, and the two wars that cost so much during the Bush administration.
Even as U.S. financial markets tank, GOP House Speaker John Boehner is steadfastly reversing course and rejecting President Obama's $4 trillion deal that would take a bigger chunk out of the federal debt than any other offer on the table.
"Our disagreements are not personal," Boehner said before heading into another debt negotiation sessions with all the leaders of Congress and Obama."We cannot allow our nation to default on our debt," he admitted.
But Boehner admitted he cannot find enough votes in his party to accept a deal. "The American people will not accept - and the House cannot pass - a bill that raises taxes on job creators," he said.
Meanwhile, insiders tell the Talk Radio New Service that some Republicans look at corporate tax loopholes as corporate welfare, but the prevailing wisdom in the GOP is that wiping those tax breaks out is tantamount to a tax hike.
“Nobody’s fond of loopholes,” a Boehner aide told Talk Radio News Service's Geoff Holtzman.
Apparently House GOP leader Eric Cantor disagrees.
"We don’t believe that we ought to be raising taxes right now on people in this recession and in this economy and they do," said Cantor, who quickly becoming the darling of the Tea Party.
The divide between Boehner and his chief deputy Cantor is surfacing, despite claims from both that it is all kumbaya in their party. Some suspect Cantor has designs on the Speaker's job sooner than later.
The Dow is down about 175 points right now. Some say it is only a taste of what is to come if their is not a compromise.
end update
---[
Updated 12 p.m. edt
President Obama urged Republicans to buck up and make the tough choices needed to cut the $14.3 trillion debt, or admit that they are just playing politics to placate the Tea Party and are not really interested in deficit reduction.
"I do not see a path to the deal if they do not budge," Obama told a news a conference, where he suggested it is time for the GOP to lose the "it's my way or the highway" approach over closing corprater tax loopholes and putting the tax squuze on the middle class.
Obama subtly challenged GOP House Speaker John Boehner to lead his party and take on the cut-frenzied Tea Party -- the way he has taken on the liberals in his party over social security, Medicare and Medicaid.
"We have these high-minded pronouncements about how we've got to get control of the deficit and how we owe it to our children and our grandchildren.Well, let's step up.Let's do it.I'm prepared to do it," Obama said.
"I'm prepared to take on significant heat from my party to get something done.And I expect the other side should be willing to do the same thing, if they mean what they say, that this is important," Obama added.
Obama firmly took off the table the GOP proposal for a short-term deal, saying he "will not sign a 30-day or a 60-day or a 90-day extension" as as an alternative.
"If we think it's hard now, imagine how these guys are going to be thinking six months from now in the middle of election season, when they're all up,"Obama said.
"It's not going to get easier, it's going to get harder.So we might as well do it now; pull off the Band-aid, eat our peas.Now's the time to do it.If not now, when? We keep on talking about this stuff, and, you know," he added.
The President also sought to clear up misinformation on the issue of tax increases.
"I want to be crystal clear.Nobody has talked about increasing taxes now; nobody has talked about increasing taxes next year. What we have talked about is that starting in 2013, that we have gotten rid of some of these egregious loopholes that are benefiting corporate jet owners or oil companies at a time where they're making billions of dollars of profits," Obama explained.
"What we have said is, as part of a broader package we should have revenues, and the best place to get those revenues are from folks like me, who have been extraordinarily fortunate, and that millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more, going back to the Bush tax rates," Obama added.
end update
---[
Democrats remain hopeful that the GOP leadership will take a massive $4 trillion White House deal that will cut more deeply into the federal deficit than any other offer on the table.
Asked at last night's 75-minute White House meeting with the bipartsan leaders of the House and Senate whether a deal can be worked out in the next 10 days, President Obama responded,"We need to."
The congressional leaders will be back at the White House today for more talks a few hours after Obama assembles the White House press corps for a late-morning news conference.
"We came into this weekend with the prospect that we could achieve a grand bargain," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement after last night's meeting. "We are still hopeful for a large bipartisan agreement, which means more stability for our economy, more growth and jobs, and more deficit reduction over a longer period of time."
But rank and file Republicans, led by the Tea Party Caucus, are holding the line against allowing corporate tax loopholes or any tax increases for the rich to be part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling, before financial markets start going haywire when the U.S. starts defaulting on its debts payments.
"If you draw out the entire scenario of default, yes, of course, you have all of that -- interest hikes, stock markets taking a huge hit and real nasty consequences, not just for the United States, but for the entire global economy, because the U.S. is such a big player and matters so much for other countries," International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told ABC's This Week" program.
But even the threat of hurting the Wall Street fat cats that line mostly GOP pockets (though the Democrats get their share too), or disrupting the volatile global financial markets has not been enough to get the GOP to back off its refusal to tap revenue streams to take a bite out of the deficit.
"We have got to be able to deliver on this promise, that we are going to get more cuts that what we raise in terms of the debt ceiling, and make sure that gets done with no tax increases," House GOP leader Eric Cantor said right before the meeting."
Brad Dayspring, Cantor's spokesman, admitted late last night on Twitter that "tax increases that Dems are insisting upon cannot pass the House." It appeared to confirm Democrats complaints that the GOP leadership was being rolled by its rank and file.
So in an about-face, Republicans are insisting that they want to take a smaller debt reduction framework that cuts around $2.5 trillion that they claim Vice President Biden had offered in his negotiations.
However, Republicans, led by Cantor, walked away from those talks and now seem to be retreating to them in an effort to protect corporate tax loopholes and keep the wealthiest Americans from paying more in taxes.
Democrats scoffed at the pull back, with Senate Democratic Policy spokesman Brian Fallon questioning on Twitter if the Biden deal was so good, "Then why did Cantor quit?"
The proposed cuts in funding come as thousands of government jobs are already being lost, forcing some communities and states to consider raising taxes to pay for basic services.
The taxpayers have watched the federal debt skyrocket under the last two Presidents. The national debt was $5.73 trillion when ex-President George W. Bush took office, but when he left, it was $10.7 trillion, ballooning by $4.97 trillion, according to fact-checking service PolitiFact.
The federal debt now stands at $14.3 trillion under Obama, a result of the Wall Street and auto industry bailouts, a massive stimulus plan, the loss of middle class revenue, and the two wars that cost so much during the Bush administration.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Boehner Admits He'll Bag Big Budget Deal to Protect Corporations & Rich
House Speaker John Boehner vowed tonight to protect corporate tax loopholes and the rich even if it means foregoing a massive $4 trillion deficit reduction deal that would take a significant chunk out of the $14.3 trillion national debt.
"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure."
Foremost, the White House has said it wants to eliminate tax breaks for hugely profitable industries, rejecting the GOP philosophy of putting the burden of revenue-raising on the middle class.
Some in the administration readily admit that President Obama's decision to extend tax breaks for the rich last year has failed to create jobs, but instead inspired the GOP to seek more boodle for the corporations and the rich, the chief financiers of their party -- even amid a fiscal crisis that is killing Main Street Americans.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer argues that the majority of Americans want the wealthiest Americans and special interests to stop squeezing every extra penny out of the Middle Class to subsidize their opulent lifestyles.
"The President believes that solving our fiscal problems is an economic imperative. But in order to do that, we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts," Pfeiffer said in a statement issued this evening.
"Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington," he added.
Boehner issued the statement on eve of crucial debt celling talks tomorrow at the White House. Obama hopes the Speaker will rethink his play and take a deal that will cut deeply into the federal deficit.
"Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes," (R-Ohio) said in a statement. "I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure."
Foremost, the White House has said it wants to eliminate tax breaks for hugely profitable industries, rejecting the GOP philosophy of putting the burden of revenue-raising on the middle class.
Some in the administration readily admit that President Obama's decision to extend tax breaks for the rich last year has failed to create jobs, but instead inspired the GOP to seek more boodle for the corporations and the rich, the chief financiers of their party -- even amid a fiscal crisis that is killing Main Street Americans.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer argues that the majority of Americans want the wealthiest Americans and special interests to stop squeezing every extra penny out of the Middle Class to subsidize their opulent lifestyles.
"The President believes that solving our fiscal problems is an economic imperative. But in order to do that, we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts," Pfeiffer said in a statement issued this evening.
"Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington," he added.
Boehner issued the statement on eve of crucial debt celling talks tomorrow at the White House. Obama hopes the Speaker will rethink his play and take a deal that will cut deeply into the federal deficit.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
White House tells Congress to Chill on Libya
There is arguably nothing more dangerous to American forces in the field then when the civilian politicians start playing politics with their lives -- and in a very polite way that is what some folks accused House Speaker John Boehner of doing today with the war in Libya.
Boehner (R-Ohio) has gone on the record with his support for the the Libyan mission, yet still sent Obama a letter today, arguing that after Sunday the President will be in violation of the War Powers Act of 1973.
"Either you have concluded the War Powers Resolution does not apply to the mission in Libya or you have determined the War Powers Resolution is contrary to the Constitution," Boehner wrote. "The House and the American people whom we represent deserve to know the determination you have made."
The letter was taken for political grandstanding by the White House, which has provided nearly three dozens closed-door briefings and public testimony at several Capitol Hill briefings on Libya. An update on Libya for Congress is expected before Sunday.
“We are in the final stages of preparing extensive information for the House and Senate that will address a whole host of issues about our ongoing efforts in Libya, including those raised in the House resolution as well as our legal analysis with regard to the War Powers Resolution," said White Hiouse national security spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"Since March 1st, administration witnesses have testified at over 10 hearings that included a substantial discussion of Libya and participated in over 30 Member or staff briefings, and we will continue to consult with our congressional colleagues,” Vietor added.
Appearing on CNN's "Situation Room," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a staunch supporter of the NATO-led Libyan air campaign, politely dismissed the grumbling in Congress as unnecessary and irrelevant.
Obama insists contingency money is in the budget for the Libya campaign, but privately sources close to Obama say he wants to see Gadhafi toppled as soon as possible. Obama is, however, convinced he is on the morally correct side of history on this campaign -- and is even more resolute that Gadhafi will go, or he will go down.
Boehner (R-Ohio) has gone on the record with his support for the the Libyan mission, yet still sent Obama a letter today, arguing that after Sunday the President will be in violation of the War Powers Act of 1973.
"Either you have concluded the War Powers Resolution does not apply to the mission in Libya or you have determined the War Powers Resolution is contrary to the Constitution," Boehner wrote. "The House and the American people whom we represent deserve to know the determination you have made."
The letter was taken for political grandstanding by the White House, which has provided nearly three dozens closed-door briefings and public testimony at several Capitol Hill briefings on Libya. An update on Libya for Congress is expected before Sunday.
“We are in the final stages of preparing extensive information for the House and Senate that will address a whole host of issues about our ongoing efforts in Libya, including those raised in the House resolution as well as our legal analysis with regard to the War Powers Resolution," said White Hiouse national security spokesman Tommy Vietor.
"Since March 1st, administration witnesses have testified at over 10 hearings that included a substantial discussion of Libya and participated in over 30 Member or staff briefings, and we will continue to consult with our congressional colleagues,” Vietor added.
Appearing on CNN's "Situation Room," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a staunch supporter of the NATO-led Libyan air campaign, politely dismissed the grumbling in Congress as unnecessary and irrelevant.
Obama insists contingency money is in the budget for the Libya campaign, but privately sources close to Obama say he wants to see Gadhafi toppled as soon as possible. Obama is, however, convinced he is on the morally correct side of history on this campaign -- and is even more resolute that Gadhafi will go, or he will go down.
Friday, June 3, 2011
House Rebukes Obama on Libya With Wink and Nod Vote
The House gave President Obama a slap on the wrist today for not consulting Congress on sending U.S. forces into action in Libya, but knocked down another measure with real teeth that called for pulling out of the NATO campaign within 15 days.
The House voted 268-145 on a resolution written by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that says Obama did not provide "compelling rationale" for joining the air campaign against Moammar Gadhafi and he must deliver an update to Congress in the next two weeks.
The White House called the vote "unhelpful," but in truth it was a gift to Obama, who faced a much tougher resolution sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) that gathered steam and appeared like it might pass on Wedenesday, when it was originally set to be voted on by the House.
When a coalition of anti-war Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans started rallying around the Kucinich resolution, Boehner pulled the measure, wrote his own watered-down version and rescheduled the vote for today.
The Kucinich resolution, which would have pulled U.S. forces out of the Libya campaign within 15 days, was defeated 265 to 148. More Republicans supported the Kucinich measure than Democrats.
NATO allies and the Libyan reebels had to be relieved by the outcome.
The House voted 268-145 on a resolution written by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that says Obama did not provide "compelling rationale" for joining the air campaign against Moammar Gadhafi and he must deliver an update to Congress in the next two weeks.
The White House called the vote "unhelpful," but in truth it was a gift to Obama, who faced a much tougher resolution sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) that gathered steam and appeared like it might pass on Wedenesday, when it was originally set to be voted on by the House.
When a coalition of anti-war Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans started rallying around the Kucinich resolution, Boehner pulled the measure, wrote his own watered-down version and rescheduled the vote for today.
The Kucinich resolution, which would have pulled U.S. forces out of the Libya campaign within 15 days, was defeated 265 to 148. More Republicans supported the Kucinich measure than Democrats.
NATO allies and the Libyan reebels had to be relieved by the outcome.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Boehner: House To Vote On Two Libya Resolutions
House Speaker John Boehner re-scheduled votes on the U.S. role in Libya for tomorrow, a sign he is confident he can defeat a measure sponsored by Rep. Dennis Kucinich that would essentially end the war immediately for the U.S.
Now the plan calls for two measures to be voted on in the House:
-One written by Boehner (R-Ohio) that slaps President Obama on the wrist for not consulting Congress before he ordered U.S. forces into action in Libya, but sets no deadline for an end to the military action;
-And a second resolution (the original one) sponsored by Kucinich (D-Ohio) that says Obama violated the war Powers Act and must withdraw forces from Libya within 15 days.
"The Kucinich measure would have long-term consequences that are unacceptable, including a precipitous withdrawal from our role supporting our NATO allies in Libya--which could have serious consequences for our broader national security," Boehner said in a statement.
Boehner postponed a vote yesterday on the Kucinich resolution after it became clear that anti-war Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans were forming an alliance that threatened to pass the measure. It had the White House sweating.
The Speaker's watered-down measure is intended to placate the angry Republicans and woo centrist Democrats away from the Kucinich resolution.
"We have now been involved in a war on Libya for over 72 days with no constitutionally required authorization for the use of military force or declaration of war," Kucinich wrote today to his fellow lawmakers.
"The President recently submitted a letter to Congress about the war in Libya arguing that he was not required to come to Congress for authorization because the war is not really a war. Really," Kucinich added.
Now the plan calls for two measures to be voted on in the House:
-One written by Boehner (R-Ohio) that slaps President Obama on the wrist for not consulting Congress before he ordered U.S. forces into action in Libya, but sets no deadline for an end to the military action;
-And a second resolution (the original one) sponsored by Kucinich (D-Ohio) that says Obama violated the war Powers Act and must withdraw forces from Libya within 15 days.
"The Kucinich measure would have long-term consequences that are unacceptable, including a precipitous withdrawal from our role supporting our NATO allies in Libya--which could have serious consequences for our broader national security," Boehner said in a statement.
Boehner postponed a vote yesterday on the Kucinich resolution after it became clear that anti-war Democrats and fiscally conservative Republicans were forming an alliance that threatened to pass the measure. It had the White House sweating.
The Speaker's watered-down measure is intended to placate the angry Republicans and woo centrist Democrats away from the Kucinich resolution.
"We have now been involved in a war on Libya for over 72 days with no constitutionally required authorization for the use of military force or declaration of war," Kucinich wrote today to his fellow lawmakers.
"The President recently submitted a letter to Congress about the war in Libya arguing that he was not required to come to Congress for authorization because the war is not really a war. Really," Kucinich added.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Debt Wars: DC's Summer Stock Greek Tragedy
The key to understanding the debt battle between the GOP-led Congress and the Obama White House is honing one's ability to separate the theatrics from the serious efforts to reach a deal before an Aug. 2 deadline.
Last night's House vote was stage play. House Speaker John Boehner called the vote to make a point that Congress would not raise the debt limit from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion unless the bill includes widespread budget cuts. The House voted 318 to 97 against the measure.
MSNBC's morning anchor Chuck Todd reports that Boehner and the Republicans whispered to their Wall Street pals that the House voter was "a sideshow" -- a stunt to make a point.
Another kabuke dance was expected at this morning's White House meeting in the East Room. Obama planned to cite a letter the late President Ronald Reagan wrote to congressional leaders on Nov. 16, 1983. Previewing the letter, White House spokesman Jay Carney read from its text:
"The risks, the costs, the disruptions and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: The Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
There are no signs yet of a serious effort at compromise.
The GOP is opposed to increasing the government's revenues by either eliminating some tax breaks for corporations or raising taxes on the waelthiest 2% of Americans. They want belt-tightening to pull the country out of the listing economy and some type of fiscal alchemy that will prevent future borrowing.
The Democrats are fearful the GOP sweeping austerity measures will tank an economy that ius again shop wing signs of trouble. The White House argues that the House GOP will forego raising federal taxes, putting pressure on local communities tro raised property taxes to pay for basic services -- and raising property taxes at a trim when the housing market is slumping is not going to spur home sales.
It will be interesting to see how long Americans will put up with the thespians in the federal government this summer. There is much pain felt the past three years at the kitchen tables of America. This may not be the right climate for political one-upsmanship.
Last night's House vote was stage play. House Speaker John Boehner called the vote to make a point that Congress would not raise the debt limit from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion unless the bill includes widespread budget cuts. The House voted 318 to 97 against the measure.
MSNBC's morning anchor Chuck Todd reports that Boehner and the Republicans whispered to their Wall Street pals that the House voter was "a sideshow" -- a stunt to make a point.
Another kabuke dance was expected at this morning's White House meeting in the East Room. Obama planned to cite a letter the late President Ronald Reagan wrote to congressional leaders on Nov. 16, 1983. Previewing the letter, White House spokesman Jay Carney read from its text:
"The risks, the costs, the disruptions and the incalculable damage lead me to but one conclusion: The Senate must pass this legislation before the Congress adjourns."
There are no signs yet of a serious effort at compromise.
The GOP is opposed to increasing the government's revenues by either eliminating some tax breaks for corporations or raising taxes on the waelthiest 2% of Americans. They want belt-tightening to pull the country out of the listing economy and some type of fiscal alchemy that will prevent future borrowing.
The Democrats are fearful the GOP sweeping austerity measures will tank an economy that ius again shop wing signs of trouble. The White House argues that the House GOP will forego raising federal taxes, putting pressure on local communities tro raised property taxes to pay for basic services -- and raising property taxes at a trim when the housing market is slumping is not going to spur home sales.
It will be interesting to see how long Americans will put up with the thespians in the federal government this summer. There is much pain felt the past three years at the kitchen tables of America. This may not be the right climate for political one-upsmanship.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Will Obama Embrace Shared Sacrifice or Just Sacrifice Values?
Updated 6 p.m. est
Angry GOP reaction to President Obama's shared sacrifice agenda was fast and furious today, with Republicans slamming him over his refusal to allow Medicare to become a voucher program and his vow to tax the richest Americans at pre-Bush levels.
"What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner-in-chief," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin lawmaker who authored the plan that would further cut taxes for the rich and force seniors off Medicare and into a voucher program. "Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy, anxiety — it's not hope. It's not change. It's partisanship. We don't need partisanship."
"I don't know about my colleagues, but I asked myself, 'And I missed lunch for this?'" added House Republican Conference Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
Several likely GOP candidates for President alsao weighed in.
"President Obama's proposals are too little, too late. Instead of supporting spending cuts that lead to real deficit reduction and true reform of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the president dug deep into his liberal playbook for 'solutions' highlighted by higher taxes," said ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"Today's speech was nothing more than window dressing," former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement.
end update
---[
Updated 2:30 p.m. est
It was much ado about something.
President Obama rolled out a plan today that calls for $4 trillion in cuts over 12 years by cutting spending and raising taxes on the richest Americans who for the past decade were given a free ride thanks to the Bush-era tax cuts.
"The most fortunate among us can afford pay a little more," Obama said, vowing not to extend the $1 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans for a second time.
"There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill," Obama said in a speech at George Washington University.
"Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can’t afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy," Obama said of the GOP plan.
"Think about it. In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90% of all working Americans actually declined. The top 1 percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. And that’s who needs to pay less taxes? They want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that’s paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President," Obama said.
The shared sacrifice agenda embraced by Obama comes as Congress must raise the debt ceiling -- the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow. The debt ceiling currently sits at $14.294 trillion.
Obama wants to cut $3 in spending for every $1 in new taxes, but he rejected a House GOP scheme to privatize Medicare for seniors by forcing them to go on a voucher program that will make their pals in the insurance industry richer, but will not make elder Americans any healthier.
"I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations," Obama said. "That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security."
end update
---[
There is a slim chance that today's budget speech by President Obama will be much ado about nothing.
There is case to be made Obama would be foolish to get too specific today in the face of a base that wonders how much he we sell them out to get re-elected, along with the angry Tea Party opposition, who blame him for the economic hard times over the corporate greed and Wall Street shenanigans that brought the country to the brink of being broke (not to mention they still think he was born in Kenya).
Obama does not have to go out on a limb today since he has already cut the deal that kept the government open. The fact that Republicans are urging him to be specific should be a red flag for the palace guard at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The President has already made bad on one campaign promise -- to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich expire -- and he does not need to add to that list. The GOP would love to box Obama in again and get him to do another flip-flop on a major agenda item.
The Republicans, with the help of many in the corporate media, have framed the budget narrative around three so-called taboos: cutting social security and Medicare, no tax cuts for the rich and no tampering with the Pentagon's budget. The GOP wants Obama to cut the entitlement programs that Americans paid into their whole working lives, but to keep his hands off tax cuts for the rich and the Department of Defense purse strings.
"We need to consider all three legs of the stool when we're dealing with the deficit. And that's entitlements, tax expenditures and defense spending," spokesman Jay Carney admitted without saying much more about the President's speech.
Hmmmm? Might that be a signal that Obama will embrace shared sacrifice rather than trying to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class.
The Republicans are not taking any chances, already chanting their no-tax mantra ahead of the President's address.
"Tomorrow, I will make clear to the President: Americans don’t want their taxes raised, they want Washington to get its fiscal house in order," House GOP leader Eric Cantor Tweeted on the eve of the President's speech.
Cantor, like his boss, GOP House Speaker John Boehner, still needs to placate their scorched-earth constituents in the Tea Party.
"Tea Partiers simply do not understand how democracy works. And they compound their ignorance with arrogance," Steve and Cokie Roberts write in their synicated newspaper column.
"In the 2012 election, the Tea Party could be the best thing that ever happened to Barack Obama. In early primary states like Iowa and South Carolina, party activists could force Republican candidates to make outlandish promises that play well at Tea Party rallies but cripple the GOP's nominee in the fall election," they added.
To make the point that there are real deep cuts in the compromise, Boehner has said there are "no blue smoke and mirrors" in the budget, but National Journal throws a wrench in that statement, showing many of the cuts are indeed slight of hand.
But, make no mistake there are cuts in the deal that kept the government from shutting down. From home heating programs to high-speed rail, Rolling Stone lists 10 programs that take a hit in the budget compromise.
The big business lobby also prevailed in wiping out a model health insurance voucher program as part of the budget deal, The New York Times reports.
Despite the blood money that is thrown around in the nation-building wars of revenge that Obama inherited from Ex-President George W. Bush, the budget deal guts funding for that foreign aid. "The actual cuts in FY 2011 and anticipated reductions [in] FY 2012 come as international responsibilities for the Department of State and USAID are actually expanding in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Egypt," ex-State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an email to The Huffington Post.
Angry GOP reaction to President Obama's shared sacrifice agenda was fast and furious today, with Republicans slamming him over his refusal to allow Medicare to become a voucher program and his vow to tax the richest Americans at pre-Bush levels.
"What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner-in-chief," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin lawmaker who authored the plan that would further cut taxes for the rich and force seniors off Medicare and into a voucher program. "Exploiting people's emotions of fear, envy, anxiety — it's not hope. It's not change. It's partisanship. We don't need partisanship."
"I don't know about my colleagues, but I asked myself, 'And I missed lunch for this?'" added House Republican Conference Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas.
Several likely GOP candidates for President alsao weighed in.
"President Obama's proposals are too little, too late. Instead of supporting spending cuts that lead to real deficit reduction and true reform of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the president dug deep into his liberal playbook for 'solutions' highlighted by higher taxes," said ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"Today's speech was nothing more than window dressing," former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement.
end update
---[
Updated 2:30 p.m. est
It was much ado about something.
President Obama rolled out a plan today that calls for $4 trillion in cuts over 12 years by cutting spending and raising taxes on the richest Americans who for the past decade were given a free ride thanks to the Bush-era tax cuts.
"The most fortunate among us can afford pay a little more," Obama said, vowing not to extend the $1 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans for a second time.
"There’s nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. There’s nothing courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don’t have any clout on Capitol Hill," Obama said in a speech at George Washington University.
"Worst of all, this is a vision that says even though America can’t afford to invest in education or clean energy; even though we can’t afford to care for seniors and poor children, we can somehow afford more than $1 trillion in new tax breaks for the wealthy," Obama said of the GOP plan.
"Think about it. In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90% of all working Americans actually declined. The top 1 percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. And that’s who needs to pay less taxes? They want to give people like me a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that’s paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs? That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I’m President," Obama said.
The shared sacrifice agenda embraced by Obama comes as Congress must raise the debt ceiling -- the amount the federal government is allowed to borrow. The debt ceiling currently sits at $14.294 trillion.
Obama wants to cut $3 in spending for every $1 in new taxes, but he rejected a House GOP scheme to privatize Medicare for seniors by forcing them to go on a voucher program that will make their pals in the insurance industry richer, but will not make elder Americans any healthier.
"I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program that leaves seniors at the mercy of the insurance industry, with a shrinking benefit to pay for rising costs. I will not tell families with children who have disabilities that they have to fend for themselves. We will reform these programs, but we will not abandon the fundamental commitment this country has kept for generations," Obama said. "That includes, by the way, our commitment to Social Security."
end update
---[
There is a slim chance that today's budget speech by President Obama will be much ado about nothing.
There is case to be made Obama would be foolish to get too specific today in the face of a base that wonders how much he we sell them out to get re-elected, along with the angry Tea Party opposition, who blame him for the economic hard times over the corporate greed and Wall Street shenanigans that brought the country to the brink of being broke (not to mention they still think he was born in Kenya).
Obama does not have to go out on a limb today since he has already cut the deal that kept the government open. The fact that Republicans are urging him to be specific should be a red flag for the palace guard at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
The President has already made bad on one campaign promise -- to let the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich expire -- and he does not need to add to that list. The GOP would love to box Obama in again and get him to do another flip-flop on a major agenda item.
The Republicans, with the help of many in the corporate media, have framed the budget narrative around three so-called taboos: cutting social security and Medicare, no tax cuts for the rich and no tampering with the Pentagon's budget. The GOP wants Obama to cut the entitlement programs that Americans paid into their whole working lives, but to keep his hands off tax cuts for the rich and the Department of Defense purse strings.
"We need to consider all three legs of the stool when we're dealing with the deficit. And that's entitlements, tax expenditures and defense spending," spokesman Jay Carney admitted without saying much more about the President's speech.
Hmmmm? Might that be a signal that Obama will embrace shared sacrifice rather than trying to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class.
The Republicans are not taking any chances, already chanting their no-tax mantra ahead of the President's address.
"Tomorrow, I will make clear to the President: Americans don’t want their taxes raised, they want Washington to get its fiscal house in order," House GOP leader Eric Cantor Tweeted on the eve of the President's speech.
Cantor, like his boss, GOP House Speaker John Boehner, still needs to placate their scorched-earth constituents in the Tea Party.
"Tea Partiers simply do not understand how democracy works. And they compound their ignorance with arrogance," Steve and Cokie Roberts write in their synicated newspaper column.
"In the 2012 election, the Tea Party could be the best thing that ever happened to Barack Obama. In early primary states like Iowa and South Carolina, party activists could force Republican candidates to make outlandish promises that play well at Tea Party rallies but cripple the GOP's nominee in the fall election," they added.
To make the point that there are real deep cuts in the compromise, Boehner has said there are "no blue smoke and mirrors" in the budget, but National Journal throws a wrench in that statement, showing many of the cuts are indeed slight of hand.
But, make no mistake there are cuts in the deal that kept the government from shutting down. From home heating programs to high-speed rail, Rolling Stone lists 10 programs that take a hit in the budget compromise.
The big business lobby also prevailed in wiping out a model health insurance voucher program as part of the budget deal, The New York Times reports.
Despite the blood money that is thrown around in the nation-building wars of revenge that Obama inherited from Ex-President George W. Bush, the budget deal guts funding for that foreign aid. "The actual cuts in FY 2011 and anticipated reductions [in] FY 2012 come as international responsibilities for the Department of State and USAID are actually expanding in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Egypt," ex-State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an email to The Huffington Post.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Federal Budget Showdown Hits Critical Mass
Updated 10:45 p.m. edt
The angry founder of Tea Party Nation threatened tonight to run a primary challenger against Speaker John Boehner if he agrees to a budget deal with Democrats that averts the shutdown of the federal government. (Dana Bash of CNN just reported there is a deal.)
Sarah Palin was none too happy either.
"GOP: don't retreat! The country is going broke. We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion," Palin Tweeted this evening (Washington time).
"If we can't fight to defund this nonsense now when we have the chance, do you think we'll win the big fight on entitlement reform later on?" she said in a separate Tweet.
The threats of running a candidate against Boehner came from Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips came as the Speaker of the House huddled behind closed doors tonight with the GOP rank and file to sell them on a framework for an agreement. The White House was also reviewing the framework.
According to National Journal, citing multiple GOP and Democratic sources, "The outline of the deal is as follows: up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion in spending for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon controversial policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the EPA, and an agreement to pass a “bridge” continuing resolution late Friday night to keep the government operating while the deal is written in bill form."
Word of a deal apparently set off Phillips.
"Boehner is selling us out tonight. We will primary Boehner next year," Phillips said on his @teapartnation Twitter feed.
He also lashed out at President Obama and the Democrats.
"Obama and the party of treason think abortionists are more important than our military and their pay," Phillips Tweeted.
end update
---[
Updated 1:30 p.m. edt
Republicans and Democrats are speaking two different languages today.
Democrats say the sticking point is a GOP cut for funding for 3 million women who get their primary care from Planned Parenthood. The GOP seems to be saying that issue has been resolved.
"Republicans want to shut down the government because they want to make it harder for women to obtain the health services they need," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today on the Senate floor.
But just a short while ago GOP House Speaker John Boehner was asked about the Planned Parenthood rider attached to a Republican bill, saying: "Almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with."
Polls and recent history show signs that most Americans are going to blame the Republicans if the government shuts down in the next 10+ hours, though President Obama is in the crosshairs of an angry electorate, as well. Jockeying for position, Boehner has tried to counter the impending blame game.
"We have no interest in shutting down they government... but we're not going to roll over and sell-out the American people," Boehner told reporters.
end update
---[
Updated 11:15 a.m. edt
It looks like the Tea Party-driven Republican Party is adamant that funding be cut for Planned Parenthood or else there is no deal on a budget.
Democrats charge Republicans want to tamper with women's health at the expense of paying the men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. Armed Services and 800,000 other federal workers.
GOP Speaker John Boehner is spending the final hours before the government shuts down at midnight trying to make the case that Republicans are really just trying to cut the budget, but has yet to explain why he has drawn a line in the sand with Planned Parenthood funding.
Feeling the heat from the unpatriotic implications of the budget showdown, Boehner a short while ago tried to side-step screwing the Armed Forces by urging passage of a bill that would pay them but shut down the government. The maneuver appears to be going nowhere.
So is this thing really about cutting spending? Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says no, accusing the GOP of using deficit-reduction to impose a social agenda on Americans.
This is going to come down to the wire, but as of now it looks like the government is going to shut down at midnight.
End update
---[
With 24 hours left until the government shuts down, there are dire warnings that military pay and some tax refunds will not be able to be processed and 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed.
All the while members of Congress making about $173,000 a year will continued to get paid, even as some of their own staff are told to stay home, do not telecommute or answer mobile phones or Blackberry devices.
President Obama, who has been convening routine meetings with the congressional leaders, met again last night (Thursday) with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but no deal was agreed to. They will be at it again today, at least until the deadline is reached.
"What I’ve said to the Speaker and what I’ve said to Harry Reid is because the machinery of the shutdown is necessarily starting to move, I expect an answer in the morning. And my hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness," Obama said.
Military families in particular are shaking their heads over then impasse and threat to take paychecks away while loved ones fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
"They don't need more stress. They don't need to be worrying about nus back home," said Amy Tersigni, whose husband, Army Pvt. Kevin Tersigni, is serving in Iraq.
"They need to focus on finishing what they need to do and keeping themselves safe. So the financial stress doesn't need to happen," the mother of two, who will be broke by the end of the month, told CNN.
The blame game is complex.
Republicans blame the then-Democratic majority for failing to pass a budget last year. Democrats blame Senate Republicans for blocking Democrats from reaching the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster and pass a budget.
Some Democrats even blame Obama for failing to jump into the politically punishing budget battle in recent weeks.
Sen. Bernie Saunders (I-Vt.) says Democrats are culpable in this showdown for another reason: Once they allowed the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to continue it opened up the opportunity for Republicans to go after the severe budget cuts to tackle the federal deficit. Saunders has said he cannot support deep budget cuts without some "shared sacrifice" with changes to the revenue stream, like wiping out tax loopholes for hugely profitable oil companies.
The angry founder of Tea Party Nation threatened tonight to run a primary challenger against Speaker John Boehner if he agrees to a budget deal with Democrats that averts the shutdown of the federal government. (Dana Bash of CNN just reported there is a deal.)
Sarah Palin was none too happy either.
"GOP: don't retreat! The country is going broke. We can't AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion," Palin Tweeted this evening (Washington time).
"If we can't fight to defund this nonsense now when we have the chance, do you think we'll win the big fight on entitlement reform later on?" she said in a separate Tweet.
The threats of running a candidate against Boehner came from Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips came as the Speaker of the House huddled behind closed doors tonight with the GOP rank and file to sell them on a framework for an agreement. The White House was also reviewing the framework.
According to National Journal, citing multiple GOP and Democratic sources, "The outline of the deal is as follows: up to $39 billion in cuts from the 2010 budget, $514 billion in spending for the defense budget covering the remainder of this fiscal year, a GOP agreement to abandon controversial policy riders dealing with Planned Parenthood and the EPA, and an agreement to pass a “bridge” continuing resolution late Friday night to keep the government operating while the deal is written in bill form."
Word of a deal apparently set off Phillips.
"Boehner is selling us out tonight. We will primary Boehner next year," Phillips said on his @teapartnation Twitter feed.
He also lashed out at President Obama and the Democrats.
"Obama and the party of treason think abortionists are more important than our military and their pay," Phillips Tweeted.
end update
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Updated 1:30 p.m. edt
Republicans and Democrats are speaking two different languages today.
Democrats say the sticking point is a GOP cut for funding for 3 million women who get their primary care from Planned Parenthood. The GOP seems to be saying that issue has been resolved.
"Republicans want to shut down the government because they want to make it harder for women to obtain the health services they need," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said today on the Senate floor.
But just a short while ago GOP House Speaker John Boehner was asked about the Planned Parenthood rider attached to a Republican bill, saying: "Almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with."
Polls and recent history show signs that most Americans are going to blame the Republicans if the government shuts down in the next 10+ hours, though President Obama is in the crosshairs of an angry electorate, as well. Jockeying for position, Boehner has tried to counter the impending blame game.
"We have no interest in shutting down they government... but we're not going to roll over and sell-out the American people," Boehner told reporters.
end update
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Updated 11:15 a.m. edt
It looks like the Tea Party-driven Republican Party is adamant that funding be cut for Planned Parenthood or else there is no deal on a budget.
Democrats charge Republicans want to tamper with women's health at the expense of paying the men and women who wear the uniform of the U.S. Armed Services and 800,000 other federal workers.
GOP Speaker John Boehner is spending the final hours before the government shuts down at midnight trying to make the case that Republicans are really just trying to cut the budget, but has yet to explain why he has drawn a line in the sand with Planned Parenthood funding.
Feeling the heat from the unpatriotic implications of the budget showdown, Boehner a short while ago tried to side-step screwing the Armed Forces by urging passage of a bill that would pay them but shut down the government. The maneuver appears to be going nowhere.
So is this thing really about cutting spending? Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says no, accusing the GOP of using deficit-reduction to impose a social agenda on Americans.
This is going to come down to the wire, but as of now it looks like the government is going to shut down at midnight.
End update
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With 24 hours left until the government shuts down, there are dire warnings that military pay and some tax refunds will not be able to be processed and 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed.
All the while members of Congress making about $173,000 a year will continued to get paid, even as some of their own staff are told to stay home, do not telecommute or answer mobile phones or Blackberry devices.
President Obama, who has been convening routine meetings with the congressional leaders, met again last night (Thursday) with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), but no deal was agreed to. They will be at it again today, at least until the deadline is reached.
"What I’ve said to the Speaker and what I’ve said to Harry Reid is because the machinery of the shutdown is necessarily starting to move, I expect an answer in the morning. And my hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness," Obama said.
Military families in particular are shaking their heads over then impasse and threat to take paychecks away while loved ones fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
"They don't need more stress. They don't need to be worrying about nus back home," said Amy Tersigni, whose husband, Army Pvt. Kevin Tersigni, is serving in Iraq.
"They need to focus on finishing what they need to do and keeping themselves safe. So the financial stress doesn't need to happen," the mother of two, who will be broke by the end of the month, told CNN.
The blame game is complex.
Republicans blame the then-Democratic majority for failing to pass a budget last year. Democrats blame Senate Republicans for blocking Democrats from reaching the 60 votes necessary to end a filibuster and pass a budget.
Some Democrats even blame Obama for failing to jump into the politically punishing budget battle in recent weeks.
Sen. Bernie Saunders (I-Vt.) says Democrats are culpable in this showdown for another reason: Once they allowed the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to continue it opened up the opportunity for Republicans to go after the severe budget cuts to tackle the federal deficit. Saunders has said he cannot support deep budget cuts without some "shared sacrifice" with changes to the revenue stream, like wiping out tax loopholes for hugely profitable oil companies.
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