Posted on 07/23/2011 1:56:30 PM PDT by lbryce
Hoping to reassure markets in the wake of an angry breakdown in the federal budget negotiations, Congressional leaders raced Saturday to reach a new deficit-reduction agreement that Speaker John A. Boehner told colleagues could cut $3 trillion to $4 trillion in spending over 10 years.
“We are working, and I’m confident there will be resolution,” Mr. Boehner told fellow House Republicans on an afternoon conference call, according to participants. “There has to be.”
Mr. Boehner’s comments came a little more than a week before the federal government risks defaulting on its debts, a fate that could be avoided if Congress agrees to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
The speaker, who abruptly broke off budget talks with President Obama on Friday evening, said he hoped the plan could be finished within 24 hours. He said the savings would most likely be achieved in two stages and would meet Republican fiscal demands that have led to a Congressional cliffhanger on the debt limit.
He spoke with his colleagues after Congressional leaders met at the White House on Saturday morning at the request of Mr. Obama. The meeting broke up without resolution just before noon, after about an hour of discussion.
Lawmakers and top aides said privately that despite the White House session, the search for a solution was now focused on Capitol Hill, where senior advisers gathered Saturday afternoon to exchange ideas on a plan that could get the go-ahead from top members of Congress.
In a statement after the White House session, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, indicated that he and his leadership counterparts were trying to devise a fallback measure to assure the borrowing ceiling was raised in time.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Office of the Speaker
H-232 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0600
Fax: (202) 225-5117
U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121
“He was going to get his increase anyway so $3-$4 trillion is not too bad as long as they only increase the debt for one year. Make Obama have to deal with this again right at election time.”
Urkel needs the money THIS year to buy votes, nothing more, and the republicans should know this.
So long as we’re going to live in a fantasy land and accept a deal where $4 trillion is cut over 10 years, why not expand the fantasy to accept a 10-year plan to eliminate the deficit by the entire amount. That the present congress will do anything serious is in itself a fantasy.
If, in fact, they we’re serious, we would start the 10-year cuts in 2012, not sometime in the future.
Unfortunately, we’re in such deep crap, there’s no way to pay off the debt unless the government raises the tax to 100%. To pay down at the debt at the present tax rates in 10-years, we would have to reduce federal spending by $1.4 trillion per year. After including the interest, we would, with present revenue, have to reduce the federal government by 75% to meet the objective. Perhaps a 75% reduction in federal spending would be a good thing.
Over ten years, boner you bastard, you cannot bind future congresses, so knock off the horse shit talk.
My point is that it is a fruad, needs to be 2 trillion NOW....
It's silly, isn't it. If we get 4 T over 10 years [assuming we really do get the cuts] then our debt will still increase over 1 T per year. We now owe 14.6 T so in 10 years we'll owe 24.6 T. And this is a plan?
Maybe I just don't understand.
That's what I want to know. How can they just leave it hanging without debate?
If the Republicans go for a deal that says $3-4 trillion in 10 years, they are toast. All of this arguing, pain and suffering - for what? For a deal that they could have gotten on day one?
Obama will be glad to guarantee all kinds of “cuts” over ten years. “Cuts” can be defined in any way in a ten-year period. They can be cuts in what Obama will claim he actually wanted to, or needed to, spend. And the best thing is, none of the cuts have to happen this year or next (which is, by the way, an election year). Actually, no real cuts ever have to happen with such a plan. They can disappear when a new president takes office in 2013 or in 2017. No one currently in office has to take responsibility for complying with the promise.
I am going to cut my family budget by $550,000 next year. I’m not going to buy the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports ($2,400,000). Instead, I’m going to settle for the Pagani Zonda Clinque Roadster ($1,850,000). Of course, the fact that I only make $80,000 a year means I will incur some debt. But, hey, I’m showing some real responsibility here.
(Thanks to http://www.thesupercars.org/top-cars/most-expensive-cars-in-the-world-top-10-list/ for the car prices.)
If Boehner doesn’t stand his ground against Reid he can kiss any chance of Republicans making any ground in the next elections. This is the Democrats mess for not passing anything since Obama took over. I will stay home on election day.
YES! BRING IT!
I will encourage my Representative, as well as other state Representatives to vote NO on any long-term debt reduction that does not have 2012 cuts of at least $500 billion (without additional spending).
We got duped into passing TARP on a phoney crisis and wasted $1 trillion dollars.
Even $1 in increased taxes will spell doom for the Republicans in 2012. This is not about the debt ceiling (Obama and Reid voted AGAINST raising the debt ceiling in 2006), it is about breaking the Republican base in 2012.
Stand firm. NO long-term agreement. If the "crisis" is now, then the solution must be now.
Personally, I don't care about the Asian markets opening on Monday, but I do care about the country we are leaving to my children and grandchildren.
http://salsa.afge.org/c/407/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=409
Federal Employee Pension Is On GOP Chopping Block
http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=takeactionAdvocacy
Urgent and New Materials for Fighting Debt Deal
More fear mongering, first social security checks, now making they are freaking about this? I don't see the big deal. The pension plan would still be great. Better than most workers have, they can't have it all. This is reality. But, to scare the disabled and seniors to gain a mob is just wrong and sickening.
Prevent me from voting for the idiots that are destroying this Nation.
Understand the frustration..... but will it prevent the Nation from being destoyed if you don’t vote?
If Boehner caves to this thing from Kenya, nothing I do will save this Nation.
You’re exactly right. There’s no such thing as a 10 year budget. Congress can only pass a budget one year at a time, so the only thing that matters is the amount of spending cuts this year. A proposed cut even 2 or 3 years from now will never happen. There’s nothing that would force a future President to go along with some “deal” made in the year 2011.
This reminds me exactly of the TARP debate that was going on in 2008. Everybody thought the sky was going to fall and the world was going to come to an end if they didn’t pass TARP. So they spent 1 trillion dollars based on fear, and the Dow responded by dropping an additional 2,000 points. The economy still has not really recovered, and there’s no evidence that TARP did anything at all to help the economy. Just like TARP, the current Congress is going to pass another bill based on fear.
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