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WASHINGTON (AP) — An exhausted Senate gave pre-dawn approval Saturday to a Democratic $3.7 trillion budget for next year that embraces nearly $1 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade but shelters domestic programs targeted for cuts by House Republicans.While their victory was by a razor-thin 50-49 vote, it allowed Democrats to tout their priorities. Yet it doesn't resolve the deep differences the two parties have over deficits and the size of government.Joining all Republicans voting no were four Democrats who face re-election next year in potentially difficult races: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay...

Commentary: Compromise sets stage for 2012 electionUZÈS, France (MarketWatch) — There won’t be a default on U.S. debt and there won’t be a new crisis about raising the debt ceiling until after the presidential election in November 2012. It’s hard to see how the compromise agreed to this week is a loss for President Barack Obama and a win for the Republicans, all the posturing by politicians and the proclamations of the pundits notwithstanding. The voters will decide in 15 months who won and who lost. In the meantime, it seems every Washington politician — congressional Republicans and Democrats as...

The budget deal requires an additional $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to be designed by a “super-committee of legislators” who will propose painful recommendations—and if those recommendations aren’t accepted by both Houses, there will be automatic cuts to Defense and Medicare. The idea here is that Republicans will be restrained from avoiding tough choices by the supercommittee by the prospect of big defense cuts, while Democrats will feel the same way about Medicare. Oh? So, going into an extremely nerve-wracking election season, only Republicans will care about defense spending? Defense spending has been all but sacrosanct for the past decade,...

The White House and Republican leaders closed in Sunday on a debt ceiling deal giving President Barack Obama greater certainty in managing the Treasury’s borrowing needs while making a joint commitment to major deficit reductions without any explicit concessions by the GOP on new tax revenues. Late in the afternoon, a statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said: “Senator Reid has signed off on the debt-ceiling agreement pending caucus approval.”

Liberals began tearing into President Obama and Democrats on Sunday, accusing them of caving to Republican demands even before final details of a debt ceiling agreement have been announced.

SO I was chatting with Chris Coons, the new Democratic senator from Delaware who had a rare win over the Tea Party when he beat loony Christine “I’ve Dabbled in Witchcraft but I Am Not a Witch” O’Donnell in the midterms.... [Lots more garbage] Money quote: Democratic lawmakers worry that the Tea Party freshmen have already “neutered” the president, as one told me. They fret that Obama is an inept negotiator. They worry that he should have been out in the country selling a concrete plan, rather than once more kowtowing to Republicans and, as with the stimulus plan, health...

WASHINGTON — However the debt limit showdown ends, one thing is clear: under pressure from Congressional Republicans, President Obama has moved rightward on budget policy, deepening a rift within his party heading into the next election. Entering a campaign that is shaping up as an epic clash over the parties’ divergent views on the size and role of the federal government, Republicans have changed the terms of the national debate. Mr. Obama, seeking to appeal to the broad swath of independent voters, has adopted the Republicans’ language and in some cases their policies, while signaling a willingness to break with...

With the prospect of a government default just three days away, the White House entered intense negotiations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday in a last-ditch bid to forge a bipartisan agreement to raise the federal debt limit.Shortly after 10 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced that talks between McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Biden had made significant progress, prompting Reid to delay a vote that had been scheduled for 1 a.m. Sunday on his own debt-limit measure.“There are negotiations going on at the White House to avert a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt,”...

10:56am | Good Saturday morning. The House and Senate will convene at 1pm today. The House will likely go out of session after a vote on the Reid plan to raise the debt limit, while the Senate will stick around until 1 am Sunday to vote to end debate on the plan. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-coverage-congressional-debt-ceiling-showdown-2011-7#ixzz1TbPkr4wi

After yesterday’s embarrassing plea to Mitch McConnell to save him from a cloture vote, Harry Reid went back to the drawing board.  The Hill reports that Reid has altered his plan to raise the debt ceiling by borrowing more from the plans of McConnell and John Boehner, hoping to shake loose enough Republicans to get past the procedural hurdle: The biggest change is that Reid would give the president almost unilateral power to raise the debt limit, borrowing an idea introduced by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).Reid would have President Obama request a $2.4 trillion debt-limit increase in two...

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. Click to Play *******************************************See website for video***************************************************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”...

Fri Jul 29, 2011 12:59am EDT * House puts off vote on Republican measure * Boehner plan faces opposition from party rebels * Tuesday deadline looms to avert risk of U.S. default * Obama administration: Americans want compromise * House Republicans to meet on Friday morning (Adds Chinese comments) By Andy Sullivan and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - Urgent efforts to avoid an unprecedented U.S. debt default suffered a new blow on Thursday when some fiscally hardline Republicans blocked a budget deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders. After hours of trying to get enough votes, the...

House Republicans have not abandoned their efforts to get an up-or-down vote on their proposed balanced-budget amendment.  According to a new report from Politico, any bill cutting a debt-ceiling deal will have a requirement for a future vote in both chambers for the BBA within the next few months: House Republican leaders are planning to write into the bill that will raise the debt ceiling a provision that would require consideration of a balanced budget amendment in the next few months, according to several GOP sources.The legislation, which is being written by staff this morning, is likely to include a...

Goldman Sachs suggests a downgrade of U.S. credit is increasingly likely and experts continue to warn that a weakened credit rating would have significant financial repercussions in the markets, but at least one member of Congress has accepted that a downgrade might be deserved.“Until we stop spending more, we should be downgraded,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said this morning on the Fox Business Network. The Hill reports more details: The credit-rating agencies Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s both put the nation’s triple-A credit rating on review for a downgrade...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's insistence that Congress solve the nation's debt crisis through the 2012 elections emerged as a key sticking point as Democrats and Republicans urgently pieced together competing plans Monday to prevent a first-ever government default next week. House Speaker John Boehner forged ahead with a plan to raise the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by about $1 trillion, along with commensurate spending cuts. That would require lawmakers to go through the painful process again next spring with an even larger debt and deficit package.With little more than a week before an Aug. 2 deadline, Obama...

President Obama says he is intent on passing a "balanced" plan to reduce the deficit while raising the debt ceiling, but reports that the president is working on a deal with House Speaker John Boehner have Democrats frustrated and concerned. On the Senate floor this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned his fellow leaders against any drastic moves. "We all know... there are talks going on between President Obama and Speaker Boehner. I wish them well," he said. "I say to both the president and the speaker here on the Senate floor, representing my Democrats and I'm confident many...

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said that if Congress doesn’t agree to a debt-ceiling increase that the federal government won’t have the means to pay its bills, and that such a scenario would deliver on us a “catastrophic economic impact.” Geithner has been joined in this bit of scaremongering by Ben Bernanke, our walking, talking contrarian economic indicator who also serves as Fed Chairman.For fun, let’s assume for a moment that much as stopped clocks get the time right twice a day, that Geithner and Bernanke are for once correct. If so, their breathy warnings explain why it’s essential that...

Democrats, allies hope to flip the script on town-hall rage By Daniel Strauss and Emily Cahn - 04/24/11 01:37 PM ET If video of angry constituents haranguing members of Congress over healthcare reform captured the tone of that policy debate, Democrats and their allies hope that similar clips will emerge in 2011 to define the coming battle over Medicare and entitlement reform. Left-leaning groups pushed the idea last week that Americans all over the country are outraged at Republican legislators and have been confronting them at town halls to voice their opposition. In emails and press statements, Democratic organizations have...

Throwing down the gauntlet, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint threatened Monday to block a vote in Congress on raising the U.S. debt ceiling unless he wins a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. The filibuster threat comes a day after Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suggested Republican leaders had offered private assurances to the White House that they ultimately would vote to raise the $14.3 trillion ceiling, regardless of whether a deal is reached on long-term spending cuts. Publicly, Republicans say they will demand spending cuts as a condition for supporting a hike in the debt ceiling. They stood by that claim following...

Video at LinkToday Foxnews says DeMint states Filibuster Threatened...over raising Debt Limit...without a Balanced Budget Amendment!