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Posted on 10/15/2013 1:46:40 PM PDT by cotton1706
Grim-faced senators left their party lunches Tuesday fearful that Washington was poised to do the unthinkable: Blow past the Thursday deadline to avert an unprecedented default on the U.S. debt.
After House Republicans drew a stern rebuke from the White House for moving their own proposal, Senate leaders abruptly broke off their talks, leaving Washington with no clear path to avert a growing national crisis. Even if the House fails to pass a bill and a deal is eventually reached in the Senate, any one senator can object and delay a final resolution until after the Thursday deadline when the Treasury Department warns the country will start running out of cash to pay its bills.
Senate Democratic leaders have already warned that they will reject the proposal under consideration by House Speaker John Boehner. And there’s hardly any guarantee that the House will accept whatever deal is eventually reached between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
That left senators coming to grips with the possibility that the government shutdown — now in its third week — could be compounded with a debt default, provoking a fresh economic crisis that could rattle markets around the world.
“I don’t know in my 17 years here where I’ve seen a situation where a solution looked less likely,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, a former House member, after lunching with fellow Republicans.
It’s still possible a quick resolution could be reached if lawmakers start feeling even more pressure for their failure to act — but that would take a lot of cooperation that’s been in short order so far.
The change in mood was stunning because senators in both parties largely thought the two party leaders were inches away from sealing an agreement to calm markets and restart the jobs of furloughed employees.
Indeed, Republicans came to the Capitol Tuesday morning expecting to be briefed about the emerging Reid-McConnell deal. Instead, many were greeted with news that Boehner planned to push his own plan that would seek more concessions from Obamacare, shorten the length of a stop-gap spending measure and limit the Treasury Department’s ability to go beyond the new debt limit deadline. GOP leaders canceled that briefing along with a press conference later in the day.
Democrats believe Boehner “pulled the rug out” from underneath the Senate, as Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) put it.
“We’re too close,” Heinrich said. “It’s reckless and irresponsible.”
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of GOP leadership, said it seemed “pretty real” that a deal by Thursday wouldn’t be able to clear Congress. Still, he suggested that the financial markets and the global economy would be calm if they “sense” a deal is in the works, even if it hasn’t cleared all the final legislative hurdles.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been trying to hammer out a deal that ends the federal government shutdown and lifts the debt limit, said Tuesday that she was “obviously very worried” about the risk of default.
“Even if it’s not the 17th or it may be the 18th, we know it’s coming,” Collins said. “We have an obligation to act to prevent a default.”
If the House fails to adopt the plan Tuesday evening, then the McConnell-Reid negotiations would resume. In many ways, Bohener’s failure would strengthen McConnell’s ability to sell the Senate proposal as the last, best possible deal for his party to end the fiscal crisis.
But if the House passes its bill, then McConnell is in a far trickier position. He could demand passage of a House GOP bill Reid and the White House strongly oppose — or he could try to cut a bipartisan deal that many House conservatives are already balking at.
The taxpaying American Public is tired of pulling the overloaded loafer cart and being whipped in thanks.
Why can’t we all just be Marxists?
Pray America is Waking Up
He could demand passage of a House GOP bill Reid and the White House strongly oppose.
Put them in the spotlight!
Let them vote no if that’s what they want.
Go ahead Harry, I dare ya.
POLITICO aggressively manipulates it's reporting to deceive.
This looks like an “All in” bet on the World Poker Tour. The decision to call or not to call.
The Senate has been TEA totaled.
-— Grim-faced senators left their party lunches Tuesday fearful that Washington was poised to do the unthinkable: Blow past the Thursday deadline to avert an unprecedented default on the U.S. debt.——
Thus sounds too good to be true.
I guess he’s going to cut all military spending first.
Look at the bright side, we have a balanced budget come Friday
The first sentence tells us part of the problem. They left their “party lunches”. They eat like kings everyday while the average American is struggling to put food on the table. And believe me, they can lie all they want but food prices have gone through the roof.
Then the articles says the house republicans want more concessions on obamacare. What concessions are they talking about other than making Reid and Pelosi’s brilliant staff members participate in the monster they wrote.
Finally, I’m so sick of rinos going in front of the cameras yelling “The sky is falling!” Well, rinos, if it falls it’s bacause you helped rip the parachute.
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