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The White House and Republican leaders are closing in 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. Both sides stress that nothing is yet final, but the contours suggest a more practical approach by Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to achieve many of the party’s goals without pushing Obama and the nation into default. Quoting a figure of $3 trillion, McConnell confirmed Sunday morning on CNN’s “State of...

The clock is ticking. The United States is on the verge of default. Congress and the president seem unable to come together and find an agreement avoiding an economic catastrophe. How in the world did we get into this fix? Well, it didn’t happen overnight. It’s been coming for a generation. For years, fiscal conservatives have warned about the dangers of out-of-control borrowing and spending, but current and previous presidents and congresses have ignored them, rolling up a massive national debt. The bigger question is why did the American people stand for this? The answer is painfully clear. Because the...

Per discussion this AM about the debt ceiling/tax cut proposals, several congresspeople say deal now involves making sure it would go past the 2012 elections and would mean one dollar cuts for each two dollars of debt ceiling increase, with immediate cuts being tiny. Looks like the Repubs are folding.

ABC News has learned that Republicans and the White House have struck a tenative deal to raise the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. It's not done yet, but here is the framework of the tentative deal they have worked out, according to a source familiar with the negotiations:

Former Bay State governor Mitt Romney supports Speaker John Boehner as House Republicans move forward. His campaign says that he is reviewing the Boehner plan. "Governor Romney thinks President Obama's leadership has been an historic failure. He applauds Speaker Boehner for standing firm against raising taxes when our nation can least afford them," says Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, in a statement to National Review Online.

If the House passes the Boehner plan today, Senate Democrats will be in a bind. They cannot pass their own plan, offered by Senator Reid, thanks to a GOP filibuster—which means the Boehner bill will be the only live option for avoiding default. Senate Democrats will likely respond by trying to put forward a third option—a compromise between the Boehner and Reid plans. But considering the difficulty Boehner has had in convincing House conservatives to vote for his plan, he can credibly say that passing a watered down version of his plan in the House would be nearly impossible. Boehner’s...

Democratic officials are cautiously optimistic that the outlines of a potential compromise – a “Plan C” – are emerging that could bridge the differences between plans pushed by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. The officials said President Obama has spent the past couple of days quietly reaching out to leaders in both parties to try and start hammering out the details, though it's clear this is still only in the discussion phase and they are not close to a deal yet. Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., hinted at such a compromise earlier...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I think we've been played for a bunch of saps, I mean not us exclusively, I just mean the whole country, the Republican Party, ruling class. I'll explain as uncomfortable as it is and as grading as it is, I'll explain as the program unfolds it's great to have you here as always telephone number if you want to be on the program. 800-282-2882. The e-mail address elrushbo@eibnet.com. Where are we on the debt deal? I suspect that most of the people, and this is what a lot of people are relying on, "Just finish it!" A...

One of the depressing features of the Republican Party is the way they get suckered time and again into playing on Democrats’ terms. The pathetic spectacle of grown men and women sitting around in meetings trying to agree “grand bargains” to save $43.7 bazillion in federal spending by 2023 before an allegedly looming deadline of August 2nd is almost too perfect a snapshot of Washington stupidity. The rest of the world isn’t looking for a grand bargain by August 2nd. And it knows enough about the decadent state of US law-making to know that any such bargain would be voted...

Blowing Up the House WASHINGTON -- Media reports are touting the Senate's Gang of Six and its new budget outline. But the news that explains why the nation is caught in this debt-ceiling fiasco is the gang warfare inside the Republican Party. We are witnessing the disintegration of tea party Republicanism. The tea party's followers have endangered the nation's credit rating and the GOP by pushing both House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor away from their own best instincts. Cantor worked amiably with the negotiating group organized by Vice President Joe Biden and won praise for his...

National Debt: No wonder President Obama has so heartily endorsed the "Gang of Six" deficit plan. Just like everything Obama has offered so far, it's short on details and long on tax hikes. Soon after the "Gang of Six" — a bipartisan group of senators that has been trying for months to put together a deficit reduction plan — issued its new proposal, President Obama praised it as "a very significant step" that represents "the potential for bipartisan consensus." What it really represents is Washington at its worst. The "plan" Obama was praising isn't a plan at all, but a...

News is breaking out all over Capitol Hill just now: The president is threatening to veto House GOP conservatives’ proposal to cut spending now, cap future spending, and balance the budget. So, to be clear, to use that over-worn Obama phrase, the White House is against Cut, Cap and Balance. Spread the word. Call their bluff. *** WashTimes’ Emily Miller: “Obama just issued a veto threat for a bill that would give him a $2.4 trillion debt ceiling increase. So, who’s risking default now?” Via Jamie Dupree: Read the White House veto threat. The fear-mongering intro: The Administration strongly opposes...

For McCain, the only viable Plan B, at this point, is the McConnell plan, a legislative maneuver that would enable President Obama to raise the debt ceiling via a presidential veto. Noting that the GOP leader’s proposal is “too complicated,” McCain emphasizes that it should be supported, however reluctantly........

Here is what is going to happen unless House Republicans stage an immediate revolt against their own House leadership. Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi are going to win. They have managed to cut the legs out from under John Boehner and the House Republicans. In fact, the House Republicans have taken on all the appearances of Mitch McConnell’s basement gimp. I’m not sure why we need them any more if the McConnell-Reid-Pelosi Pontius Pilate Act passes. See, John Boehner ceded authority to Mitch McConnell. Instead of embracing the conservative “Cut, Cap, and Balance” plan or even pushing forward...

Plan B is fast becoming Plan A for raising the debt ceiling and averting a fiscal crisis. With the White House’s push for a “grand bargain” fizzling and two weeks to go before the Aug. 2 debt default deadline set by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Senate leaders are negotiating a way to sidestep a default while providing maximum political cover for Members of Congress who believe they face a potentially career-ending vote. Of course, the Senate plan would do little to put a dent in the deficit, and it falls well short of the $4 trillion deficit reduction package that...

Predict the date and time (eastern) of the announcement of the republican collapse in the debt ceiling "crisis." For bonus points, name the republican who makes the announcement. Winner gets .... screwed just like the rest of us.

President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won't sign anything less, he warns, asking, "If not now, when?" How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission's recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached? All of a sudden he's a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He's been saying forever that he's prepared to discuss,...

And so as the sun is setting today, I learn from multiple Hill sources and now media reports that after McConnell sent out notice that he was signing on to Cut, Cap, and Balance, he began making door to door visits throughout the Senate lining up support for the Pontius Pilate Pass the Buck Act of 2011 — his plan to allow Barack Obama to raise the debt limit by $2 trillion. What’s more, McConnell has enlisted the help of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to line up Democrat votes for the plan. Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner is saying the McConnell...

A plan by the Senate's two top leaders to allow President Obama to raise the debt limit without congressional approval is emerging as the most likely strategy to avoid a looming federal default. The plan being drafted by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada would lock in roughly $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years — a figure considerably smaller than Republican leaders or President Obama had been seeking. Administration officials have said they still would prefer a more sweeping deal on the deficit, but they signaled the idea...

President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?” How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?