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“Congress Set to End Fiscal Impasse as Boehner Concedes“ Sigh. So what was the reaction in financial markets from the surrender by Mitch McConnell (RINO-KY) and John Boehner (RINO-OH)? Particularly after the “terrifying crisis” that Democrats, the media and Gall Street professionals were screaming about? First, the 10 year US Treasury yield fell 6 basis points in the afternoon. Hardly an earth shattering change from the alleged “brink of default.” ust10psurr Second, US Credit Default Swaps are at 40, almost the same as Australia and New Zealand. Which, as far as I know, have NOT been on the brink of...

With John Boehner receiving low marks from both moderates and conservatives over his handling of the now- resolved government shutdown and debt-ceiling battles, discussion is rife over whether any fellow House Republican will challenge him as speaker. Though the conventional wisdom is that the wily Ohioan will survive, there is enough residual anger to make his continued hold on the position something less than a foregone conclusion. The name being mentioned most as his potential successor is Georgia Rep. Tom Price, who resisted pressure to challenge Boehner at the start of the 113th Congress in January. …

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, there's so much out there that seems on the surface to be inexplicable. The problem in this country, as a majority of people recognize, I mean, look at this poll here. Look at this. It is a poll from the Pew Research Center. The bottom line: 81% of the people in this country are dissatisfied. Eighty-one percent are dissatisfied. Do you think they're dissatisfied with Ted Cruz? Do you think they're dissatisfied with the Tea Party? Do you think they're dissatisfied with the opposition to Barack Obama? The Republican Party obviously thinks so, but...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz railed against a Senate deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit, but he said to filibuster would be a pointless exercise. … “It is about all the people across this country who are right now facing terrifying decisions, because they are losing their health care, losing their jobs, being left in the cold. And, sadly, the United States Senate has said Washington will do nothing,” he said. “The Washington establishment is refusing to listen to the American people. The deal that has been cut provides no relief to millions of American who...

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES NOW AND TELL THEM TO REMOVE BOEHNER AS SPEAKER TODAY BEFORE THE EVENING VOTE! LIGHT UP THE PHONE LINES!

Just heard Boehner say this on the hourly news five minutes ago regarding the Senate compromise. Hey John, THERE HASN'T BEEN A VOT IN THE HOUSE YET. You are deciding we didn't win when you can still defeat this compromise which gives us NOTHING! Lead, help...or get the hell out of the way! If you pass this with the Democrates and a minority of Republicans you need to be out as the GOP leader and Speaker of the House tomorrow.

On the brink of a national default, the leaders of the Senate struck a deal Wednesday to reopen the federal government and extend its power to borrow money. The House appeared ready to go along — and end, at least for now, the crisis in Washington. Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor at midday that his party and Republicans had found their way to a compromise to “provide our economy with the stability it desperately needs” and avert financial disaster. His Republican counterpart, Sen. Mitch McConnell, offered his blessing: “This is far less than many...

Two leading conservatives are coming to Speaker John Boehner’s defense as he moves to put the Senate deal to open the government and hike the debt ceiling on the floor likely without the support of a majority of Republicans.

I don't seem to ever recall Democrats turning on their own like several "Republicans" have recently. I wonder how things would have turned out in the fight to defund, delay, alter ObamaCare if so-called Republicans would have listened to Reagan, when he underwent so many personal attacks during his 1966 campaign for governor, which led to the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou shatlt not speak ill of any Republican. Reagan said "It's a rule that I followed in that campaign and have ever since." McCain and others seem to like to evoke Reagan, but don't appear to follow what he said. In...

RUSH: I want to go back to the lady on the phone who says this doesn’t feel right. What’s happening here to the country just doesn’t feel right. You know what’s happened here? You know what this feels like, folks? I’ll tell you exactly what it feels like to me. You tell me if this isn’t close. It feels like we’ve lost a war to a communist country. It’s almost like there’s been a coup. There’s been a peaceful coup. The media has led this coup, and the Democrats have taken over with popular support. We’re getting policies and implementations...

Sens. Cruz, Lee say they won't block deal By Mike Lillis - 10/16/13 12:38 PM ET Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee said Wednesday that they won't try to block the bipartisan deal to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. "The timing of the vote will make no difference to the outcome," Cruz (R-Texas) said. "I have no intention of delaying the vote." Cruz and Lee (R-Utah) had spearheaded the campaign to attach ObamaCare language to any new budget bills, and had pushed their colleagues to take a hard-line stance. But the pair emerged from a meeting of...

Despite no evidence in financial markets of a default, House Speaker John Boehner (RINO-OH) will bring the Senate clean Continuing Resolution (CR) to The House floor for a vote. The endless spending and debt growth in Washington DC will continue now that the Senate has turned over the power of pursestrings to The President (once House Republicans agree). Obamacare was already a tremendous transfer of power and control to the Executive Branch, and now capitulating to President Obama gives the Executive Branch overwhelming power and control. In order to honor our career politicians in Congress and the Administration, the Washington...

Referring to his plan to preemptively send the Senate a House-passed bill, Speaker John Boehner told his conference this morning that he’d “rather throw a grenade than catch a grenade.” But with his right-wing troops abandoning him again, it was the speaker who was left holding the bomb. After a day of furious negotiating with fellow Republicans over how to tweak a bill he had unveiled in the morning, it was left to stunned members of his leadership team to confirm to reporters that the vote had been canceled. “They’re trying to work it out,” said Representative Greg Walden, the...

In a 2003 speech, then Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.) discussed his House management guidelines that became known as “The Hastert Rule.” The rule calls for a leader not to send legislation to the House floor for a vote unless it has the support of the majority of the majority. On Wednesday, with just hours left to raise the debt ceiling or risk default, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)–who has been holding fast to the Hastert Rule–has to decide whether to break it.

Another morning, another gridlock. No deal from Obama and Congress with the default clock ticking. To paraphrase the old Wendy’s commercial, “Where’s the (default) beef?“ Credit default swaps for the US? Up slightly this morning, but still the lowest in the Americas. sovcds101613 And the US CDS “smile” remains (inverse hump in the CDS curve). uscdscurve101613 Zero Hedge has the hysterical headline that “Repo Soars To 2013 Highs On Default Fears, Bifurcated Collateral Market.” True, but compared to 2008, it is a drop in the bucket. repost101613 And the US Treasury 10 is up slightly today, not the massive default...

The speaker is considering a vote on the Senate-brokered deal, even if conservatives object. Speaker John Boehner is considering letting the House take the initial vote Wednesday on a Senate-prepared bill to lift the debt ceiling and restart funding for the shuttered federal government--apparently even if House conservatives object. If they do object, it would mean Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her House Democrats could become critical to its passage.

The Democrats government shutdown is in its third week and it is beginning to look like it will continue, at least past the debt ceiling. Negotiations continue over how to reopen the government, but there is a certain amount of exasperation starting to show. The Republicans in the House of Representatives have offered plan after plan to end the government shutdown, but they have all been rejected by the Democrats. Their latest plan was threatened with a veto from President Obama, before it could even make it to the floor of the House. I can't help but wonder if Rush...

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the frantic stop-and-go effort in Congress to avoid a debt default and end a government shutdown is "a mess" as a gloomy mood descended over the White House with time running out to a Thursday deadline. Obama, who is to meet Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday, and his Democratic backers stressed there is still time to avoid a historic default even as efforts to reach a deal in Congress floundered on Capitol Hill. "My expectation is that it does get solved, but we don´t have a lot of time," Obama told...

This failure of an option B has set the stage for Bohners end game, very much like what happened early this year with taxes.Reid Slams New House GOP Debt Limit Offer (Hissy fit) Roll Call ^ | 10/15/13 | Meredith Shiner House vote pulled, chaos continues Politico ^ | 10-15-13 | By JAKE SHERMAN, BURGESS EVERETT, JOHN BRESNAHAN and SEUNG Reid will pass his ‘bipartision’ bill using a procedure that only requires 50 votes but gutting a previously passed bill. That allows lots of GOP Senators cover to vote symbolically ‘no’ with no effect. Then that Bill goes to house...

----"Plan B" and fiscal cliff vote, redux. Having hammered out a deal to shoot back to the Senate tonight -- with most Republicans reportedly on board -- House GOP leadership has been forced to delay or cancel those votes after support among conservatives collapsed in the early evening hours. The rules committee meeting, which would have formally drawn up the bill and advanced it to the full house, has been postponed indefinitely. The reason is simple. They don't have the votes: What happened? The counter-offer's broad outline, which I've been following all day, seemed to be on track. Then the...

The Washington Monument syndrome is describe the tendency of government agencies in the United States to cut the most visible or appreciated services provided by the government when faced with budget cuts. And protect massive waste (since no one would miss the massive waste if it was cut). Such as closing National Parks and Monuments. What are government agencies hiding? The fact that agencies have large concentrations of non-essential personnel. Even Time.com recognizes that most of Federal government in non-essential. The interest payments on Federal debt is a small percentage of Federal current expenditures (11.5% at the end of Q2)....

Barney Frank spent 32 years in the U.S. House before retiring in January. In recent years, he helmed the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 financial crisis, became the first member of Congress to marry a same-sex partner while in office and helped lead the charge for a ban on anti-gay firings (so far stymied) and post-crash financial reform (that law now bears his name). He’s currently writing a book. In a Monday afternoon interview, Frank predicted the endgame of the debt-ceiling showdown and defended his push in Congress for an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would have left out...

Question: If Ted Cruz and John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved? Answer: America. Harsh? Look around you at what is happening to America and you will see harsh. I am not talking about closed parks and monuments. I am talking about the funds cut to nearly 9 million mothers and young children for food, breastfeeding support and infant formula. That is harsh. Making a war against babies is harsh. And for what? Because Cruz, Republican senator from Texas, has grown so drunk on the sound of his own voice and so besotted with illusions...

While the media and Democrats scream about the Titanic sinking of government default, there is scant evidence in financial markets of it. Here are two curves as of 1pm EST, the US Treasury yield curve and the US credit default swaps curve. The Treasury curve is upward sloping while the CDS curve is downward sloping. Actually, the CDS curve has an inverted hump. ustcdes1015E It does look like a bomb crater rather than a typical CDS curve. If we look at 1 month ago, we see an upward sloping CDS curve. 1moyccds And if we compare the current curves compared...

Class: Because of George Mason University’s screwy scheduling (no class today because Monday’s classes are now Tuesday classes because of Columbus Day), we can’t have our discussion of the impending US default. Here are two curves as of 1pm EST, the US Treasury yield curve and the US credit default swaps curve. The Treasury curve is upward sloping while the CDS curve is downward sloping. ustcdes1015E If we look at 1 month ago, we see an upward sloping CDS curve. 1moyccds And if we compare the current curves compared to President Obama’s inauguration date, we see an upward sloping CDS...

After a weekend of meetings, there is still no agreement on the debt ceiling or budget. debtceilgst The reaction? US credit default swaps rose this morning. But notice they are still lower than they were on October 10th. uscds101413 The US has the fastest rising CDS. Simply because the alleged default on US sovereign debt isn’t hurting any other country. sovcds101413 So, President Obama and Congress are digging in their heels on cutting spending and debt. Even though Germany is cutting back on its debt. debtdrop Germany was able to lower its debt-to-GDP ratio. Why can’t Congress and Obama agree...

The news from Washington is all about President Obama’s impending triumph in the government shutdown/debt ceiling standoff. “Boehner Blinks,” declared a recent headline in The Washington Post. “Republicans,” explained ABC’s Jonathan Karl, “are working out the terms of their surrender.” If this is Republican surrender, I hope I never see Republican victory. To understand how upside down the current media analysis is, you need to go back a couple of years. In 2011, with Republicans threatening to provoke a debt default, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which cut government spending by $917 billion over 10 years....

I was very disappointed to see Robert Costa of National Review use of the dollar sign in this tweet: Praised recently by a lot of liberals in the press, invited to the White House to sit with Barack Obama, and now subtly suggesting the McConnell – Boehner – K Street GOP attack on Heritage Action for America, Senate Conservatives Fund, Club for Growth, and Madison Project is legit, i.e. they’re in it for the money. That’s disappointing, but unsurprising. In fact, the groups mentioned above, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Mark Meadows, Tom Graves, etc. are under withering fire from the...

Rolling back the automatic budget cuts known as the "sequester" has emerged as a critical sticking point in the negotiations to reopen the government and avoid default. Democrats don't want to lock in 2014 government funding at the reduced level required by the sequester, but Republicans refuse to increase spending and say Democrats are overplaying their hand. “The dispute has been how to undo the sequester,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on "Face the Nation" on CBS on Sunday, explaining that Democrats want a mix of entitlement reforms and revenue increases. But Republican lawmakers on the Sunday talk shows vowed...

Last week I wrote a column accusing the president of having a vindictive streak — of deliberately trying to make the lives of average Americans worse just so he could score ideological and political points. We already knew from how he handled the budget sequester that Obama liked this approach. He ordered Cabinet secretaries not to do their jobs — i.e., to manage as best they could under spending restraints — but instead to find ways to make the cuts needlessly painful for innocents caught in the Beltway crossfire. They dusted off the same playbook for the shutdown. As one...

After much federally funded research, we have a newsflash: dog’s are people too! They experience emotions just like little people do. “The ability to experience positive emotions, like love and attachment, would mean that dogs have a level of sentience comparable to that of a human child.” Happy doggieWow! I’m not sure that grant money was well spent. After all, any one who’s ever had a dog, or even been around a dog, could have told you that.Sad doggieButt the real question - and one that is worthy of federal funding - is whether politicians experience the same level of...

Talks between House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama over the government shutdown and looming debt limit deadline have hit a brick wall. Boehner relayed the news to his Republican caucus during a Saturday morning meeting after a night of work where little progress was made. Republican Rep. Paul Labrador of Idaho emerged from the meeting, telling CNN that "the President rejected our deal." The standstill has decreased the possibility that the House would vote to reopen the government this weekend and while leadership would remain in Washington to work on a proposal, rank-and-file members might return to their...

While I'm loathe to fold-up Reagan's Republican 'big tent' for good, the Rove-Boehner-RNC-Fox-WSJ axis has taken the choice out of our hands, as they are clearly out to exterminate -or at least neuter- the TEA Party, particularly it's emerging new leadership i.e. Cruz, Lee, et. al... so it's kill or be killed (and I know which I'd prefer). But these losers can't win elections: Rove famously tanked in 2012 with those he and his Big Bux donors chose to back. Many of these GOP candidates were squirelly tools willing to do as he and the ole Bush gang tell them...

House GOP members are meeting at Capitol. The meeting is about how to increase the debt limit for the USA. If Democrats and Republicans cannot reach an agreement, the USA is head for … default! 2012-movie-431x300 (1) It is true that the US is at (or actually a little past) its statutory debt limit. debtceilgst But what do credit default swaps, the price for insurance against sovereign default, tell us? First, the 5y CDS did rise after the specter of default reared its head. But fell towards the end of the week as rumors surfaced that President Obama was willing...

Republican leaders in Washington, DC are signaling they will cave on the fight against Obamacare.Heck, they are signaling they are caving on everything.Isn’t it interesting that when Ted Cruz and Jim DeMint were touring America to fight against Obamacare, the popularity of the GOP was going up and the popularity of Obamacare was going down.But now that John Boehner and the Orange Man Group of Capitol Hill are the faces of the GOP, Obamacare’s popularity is going back up and the GOP’s popularity is going back down.GOP Leaders, by caving, are signaling they want us to primary them.I am happy...

President Barack Obama spoke with House Speaker John Boehner on Friday but did not wholly accept the House Republican plan to open government, raise the debt ceiling and open budget talks, sources said. -snip- Senior Republican sources say Obama is amenable to changes to mandatory and discretionary spending, but needs Republicans to commit to increasing governmental revenue.

House Republicans were awaiting a response Friday from the Obama administration to a proposal to lift the debt ceiling, end the government shutdown and set up six weeks of budget talks. -snip- Republicans are also aiming to replace steep sequester spending cuts with savings in other areas.

President Obama has rejected a proposed compromise from House Republicans that could have helped to end the congressional standoff that led to the now 11-day-old partial federal government shutdown. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) pitched a “clean” six-week increase with nothing in return to the community organizer in the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). As Big Government’s Matthew Boyle reports, “Obama’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to completely reject any offer of a compromise from House Republicans confirms what most conservatives already know: Obama will not negotiate on anything (he has said as much...

Time to primary every single one of these a**hats: House Republicans told Obama at the White House that they could reopen the federal government by early next week if the president and Senate Democrats agree to their debt-ceiling proposal. After the debt ceiling is lifted, a House GOP aide said they would seek some additional concessions in a government funding bill. Obama repeatedly pressed House Republicans to open the government, asking them “what’s it going to take to” end the shutdown, those sources said. He questioned why the government should remain closed if both sides agreed to engage in good-faith...

Staff-level talks between House Republicans and President Obama over a government funding bill are entering into day two after no decisions were made last night, according to two sources. But one of the most interesting shifts is in who’s not involved: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Back before the government shutdown and before the fault lines of the current situation became clear, many Republicans viewed Reid, not Obama, as their most likely negotiating partner on both the continuing resolution and the debt ceiling. As evidenced by their public bickering over who wronged whom in the 2011 debt-ceiling fight this week,...

“So, the President offered an off ramp, in which he said ‘I will accept any length of extension’... “So, Boehner has his offer, he goes in to see the president, you would expect that he would then have a six-week extension and discuss all of these issues. What seems to have happened is there are now demands from the president...

It seems the GOP has taken a hint and will continue the fight on Obamacare by punting the debt ceiling discussion six weeks to Thanksgiving. I think this is wise, though I think the GOP should not do a clean increase. They should tie it to a full faith and credit act or something to stop future market jitters over this stuff. The GOP should not establish a precedent of debt ceiling increases without offsets of some kind. Nor should they allow the Democrats to act as if the House of Representatives should just be Barack Obama’s rubber stamp. But...

S&P futures are now over 15 points off the day's highs, as it seems equity investors were hoping for a Cumbaya moment after the White House meeting today. However, as Bloomberg reports, •*BOEHNER LEAVES OBAMA MEETING WITHOUT SPEAKING TO REPORTERS •*REPUBLICANS LEAVE WHITE HOUSE WITHOUT MAKING STATEMENT •*OBAMA REJECTS REPUBLICAN PROPOSAL FOR SHORT-TERM PLAN: NYT It would seem that Obama's "unconditional surrender or default" position has merely placed the pressure to act back on Boehner's shoulders.

House Republicans say they'll go for a temporary extension of the debt ceiling in exchange for a "real commitment" from President Obama and Democrats to talk about the nation's pressing problems. At a news conference Thursday morning, House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans are ready to "move half way -- half way to what (Obama's) demanded." [snip] - See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/boehner-will-lift-debt-limit-now-if-obama-will-talk-later#sthash.vzfaeZe4.dpuf

President Obama must stand firm. The Obama Administration Let Republicans Control Narrative. Since the Republican led House of Representatives shut down the government, polls show a continued shift in public sentiment away from Republicans and in favor of the President. According to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll Americans disapproval of the way Congressional Republicans are “handling negotiations over the federal budget” has jumped to 70% with a mere 24% approving of Congressional Republicans. The disapproval rate of President Obama’s performance on the budget negotiations has narrowed, 51% to 45%. That’s a small improvement from the previous week’s 50% to...

I’m being told by several sources that Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are plotting to give up trying to either defund or delay Obamacare. This comes at the same time the Obama administration admits it will be months before their Obamacare website will be fixed and Kathleen Sebelius is saying if people want out of the mandate they can pay a fine. Nonetheless, Cantor, Boehner, and with them Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn are expected to cave in and fully fund, unimpeded, Obamacare. They will work up a new deal that includes a debt ceiling increase with a...

Conservative lawmakers are exploring the possibility of a short-term increase in the debt ceiling, perhaps trying to seize the opening after President Obama said a day earlier he would consider the option. Members of the Republican Study Committee, the most conservative bloc in the House, told Fox News they're looking at that possibility. Their inclination is to consider a short-term increase only if there is an agreement on a broader spending framework.

House Speaker John Boehner's office says a small group of House Republicans will meet with President Barack Obama Thursday instead of the full caucus that the White House invited. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said Wednesday that the meeting is only worthwhile if it's focused on finding a solution. So Buck said only the elected leadership and select committee chairmen will attend — 18 lawmakers out of the 232 invited.

Conservatives need to push the debt ceiling fight off the front burner to after Christmas. Republican Leaders are begging us to merge the continuing resolution fight and debt ceiling fight. They covet this with all their mind and heart. They do not want a stand alone fight on Obamacare. They want to conflate it with the debt ceiling so they can do a grand bargain and leave Obamacare alone. Consider Rep. Paul Ryan’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He wants a grand bargain and not once mentions Obamacare. Not once. Friends, as I noted the other day, we lose...