House, Senate plan to vote on rival debt bills (July 29, 2011, 1:13 p.m. EDT )

MarketWatch ^ | July 29, 2011, 1:13 p.m. EDT | By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Obama urges Congress compromise, says parties aren’t ‘miles apart’

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — House Republicans and Senate Democrats are moving forward on Friday with rival plans to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and cut government spending, as President Barack Obama urged compromise to head off a default by the government.

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In the House, Republicans were falling in line behind a revised plan from Speaker John Boehner that would tie a plan to raise the debt ceiling to a balanced-budget amendment.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “time is short” to avoid default and is pushing his own plan to raise the debt limit by $2.7 trillion.

The Treasury says the government will run out of money to pay its bills on Aug. 2 if Congress doesn’t raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

“This is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart,” Obama said in a brief statement from the White House. “We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time,” he said.

House Republicans leaders changed their bill to make a second debt-ceiling increase contingent on a balanced-budget amendment passing both chambers of Congress and being ratified by the states. The bill was originally written to raise the debt ceiling by $900 billion, with a $1.6 trillion increase next year if extra deficit reductions are approved by Congress.

[MNJohnnie]

Vote NO on everything GOP. CCB is your bill. If this MUST have a solution, make the Dems eat it.

[pyx]

The BBA in Boehner ver. 3 has been purposely left undefined and is therefore meaningless.

[apillar]

How can the senate vote on it's own bill, since all budget bills must originate in the House? Or is this just political theater, a vote on bill that they can't constitutionally move anywhere even if it passes.

[kevao]

Better than a BBA, would be a law that simply capped federal spending at 18% of GDP.

[kabar]

Why aren’t Boehner and the Reps in the House saying any bill coming out of the Senate is DOA? It will never get passed into law.

[Mouton]

Whatever happens with these votes, expect Lucy to move the football.

[so_real]

“This is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart,” Obama said in a brief statement from the White House. “We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time,” he said.

We are miles apart. Obama and his party want to raise the limit, borrow more, and spend more. We the People want Obama and his party to live within the current limit, prioritize expenditures, and spend less. That's something nearly each and every one of us has had to do in our own households. We are asking no more of them than we do of ourselves. Obama is pathetically out of touch with the average American citizen. How could we be more clear? Do we need props? Pitchforks and torches?

[EternalVigilance]

House Republicans and Senate Democrats are moving forward on Friday with rival plans to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and pretend to cut government spending

Fixed it.

[Elle Bee]

another reason to repeal the XVII Amendment and the evil that continues by the direct election of US Senators

.

[EternalVigilance]

“This is not a situation where the two parties are miles apart,” Obama said

No kidding. The leaders of both parties have been totally agreed on a multi-trillion dollar increase in the debt ceiling EVERY SINGLE STEP throughout this charade.

Everything else is nothing but political butt-covering.

In the end, it is up to us whether, once again, it will work for them.

[redgolum]

Never thought the budget process would end the American experiment.

[lionheart 247365]

Stop with the competing bills in the house already !!!! Make the Senate produce a bill in writing , We passed a bill , it’s called CUT , CAP and Balance , although I prefer Ryans package . Speeches by Ried and 0bama can not be scored by the CBO . Tea Party Reps please stand your ground as Boehner begins to fold .

[combat_boots]

$2.7 T + $14.29 = $16.99

Zeros not included.

[so_real]

Better than a BBA, would be a law that simply capped federal spending at 18% of GDP.

It's short, sweet, simple, and easy to enforce. I could sign on for that. Minor tweak: the GDP should be a prior three year average to prevent the use of future year "estimates" to inflate spending levels as is done today in budgeting. For example, surge-level defense expenditures were projected over the next ten years as a baseline for making budget cuts. Reductions from that imaginary base line were called "savings", even though the surge is over and that money would never have been spent in the first place. We have to insist on a known average to prevent such phantom numbers.

[EternalVigilance]

The Thomas Jefferson Amendment is much better:

"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution ... taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."

-- Thomas Jefferson (Letter of November 26th, 1798)

[Justice]

Reid now saying he wants to raise the debt hike by $2.7T and cut by $2.2T so the cuts will not be LESS than the hike...this is contrary to what he's been asking for the last couple of days...he senses the Speaker is weaker after a run of strength.

The reason of course is so he can cut ground from under Boehner-Cantor who would have gotten their cuts MORE than the debt hike and no new taxes.

[kevao]

Minor tweak: the GDP should be a prior three year average to prevent the use of future year "estimates" to inflate spending levels as is done today in budgeting.

Good catch.

[EternalVigilance]

so the cuts will not be LESS than the hike

MUCH less, because of baseline budgeting, which fraudulently claims as cuts what are actually only mythical cuts to mythical projected increases.

[Army Air Corps]

I agree. A spending cap related to GDP is a fine idea. Otherwise, pols would simply raise taxes to balance the budget.