Senate and House Still Far Apart on Debt in 2 New Plans
WASHINGTON – The Democratic Senate and Republican House put themselves on a legislative collision course Monday as they moved forward with significantly different plans on how to raise the debt limit and avert a possible federal default next week.
House Republican leaders pushed for a vote Wednesday on a two-step plan that would allow the federal debt limit to immediately be raised by about $1 trillion and tie a second increase next year to the ability of a new joint Congressional committee to produce more deficit reduction.
But top Senate Democrats called the proposal a “non-starter” and said they would advance their own plan to reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion and raise the debt ceiling until after next year’s elections, saying it met the conditions that Republicans had laid down during the ongoing debt fight.
“We’re about to go over a cliff here,” Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who serves as majority leader, said Monday afternoon as he outlined his proposal.
He said that Republicans were essentially attempting to embarass President Obama in the middle of the 2012 election year by forcing another debt limit showdown and that Democrats would not go along with any plan that does not guarantee a debt limit increase through next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/politics/26fiscal.html
NYT spinning for their team.
This is essentially the same plan that Boehner-Cantor have been pushing for months. Now they're going to pretend that their plan which has more cuts than debt limit with NO tax hikes is what they've wanted.
LOL!
“He said that Republicans were essentially attempting to embarass President Obama in the middle of the 2012 election year by forcing another debt limit showdown and that Democrats would not go along with any plan that does not guarantee a debt limit increase through next year.”
I say obama only wants a deal that has him not having to deal with this again in an election year. much like the obamacare start date. 10yrs of collections. 6yrs of benefits. He’s embarrased him self enough. We don’t have to even do that part. But I’m happy to see it.
I don’t get this, if I read correctly. The democrat senate would cut the deficit and NOT raise the debt limit while the republicans WOULD raise the debt limit but try and squeeze in some offsets. I maintain that increasing the debt level/limit would certainly add to our interest payments and thereby the danger of default for other USA programs. The international interests like World Monetary Fund, World bankers and people like Soros are chomping at the bit to have all of the USA generated funds payable as interest on loans/debt. If I read this correctly Boehner and friends are way off the mark as to what is good for the USA. No Debt Increase.