Major Garrett at the National Journal …
Here are the outlines of a debt-ceiling deal that congressional leaders and the Obama White House are firming up in preparation for a possible announcement as early as Sunday afternoon.
In many respects, the deal will, if approved by all parties, resemble the contours of a short-lived pact negotiated last weekend by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid, D-Nev. Obama rejected that deal, forcing Congress to wrestle with other inferior legislative options throughout the week.
Among the newest wrinkles, according to informed sources, is an agreement to extend the current $14.3 trillion debt ceiling very briefly to give the legislative process time to work without resorting to emergency, hurry-up measures.
President Obama has said he would only sign a short-term extension (days, not weeks) if it were linked to an extension of borrowing authority that lasts beyond the 2012 election.
According to sources, the Senate would use the military construction appropriations bill, one currently available for action, as the vehicle for the short-term extension. This element of the arrangement, like everything else, is subject to modification. But those close to the negotiations expect Congress to slow things down without jeopardizing the nation’s full faith and credit. A debt extension of days would achieve that goal.
Other component parts of the tentative deal include:
- $2.8 trillion in deficit reduction with $1 trillion locked in through discretionary spending caps over 10 years and the remainder determined by a so-called super committee.
- The Super Committee must report precise deficit-reduction proposals by Thanksgiving.
- The Super Committee would have to propose $1.8 trillion spending cuts to achieve that amount of deficit reduction over 10 years.
- If the Super Committee fails, Congress must send a balanced-budget amendment to the states for ratification. If that doesn’t happen, across-the-board spending cuts would go into effect and could touch Medicare and defense spending.
- No net new tax revenue would be part of the special committee’s deliberations.
- Deal Framework Is Said Reached on Raising U.S. Debt Ceiling (businessweek.com)
- State of the Union Early Bird for July 31, 2011 (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
- Reid postpones vote to “give everyone as much room as possible” for deal; Update: $2.8T in cuts and debt-ceiling boost, no tax hike? (hotair.com)
- Late Attempt at Debt-Limit Deal to Avert Default (foxnews.com)
I have a natural dislike for the word compromise. Most compromises in the political, economic and diplomatic world means failure. When I vote to have a party win power they usually come with a program and a clear agenda, thus when they end up compromising their program and agenda, it means they are now pushing something i did not agree to.
ReplyDeleteMy Dutch friend and fellow sailing enthusiast Jaap felt rather the same and said that his VVD party - the Dutch Conservatives - did that to form a government rather than force another election, it gets worse when their is more than two parties involved, as each compromising modfication is more and more based on a completely different philosophy. The current Dutch government has four different parties, ideologies and demands - Dutch Conservatives, Christian Dems, Wilders and the Fundamentalist Christian Group that has a platform for banning women from public office and government jobs.
A compromise is no goal if it doesn't not solve the underlying problem.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is this does not.
Especially since this calls for a supercommittee to take all the risk in the next few months and recommend the real cuts. This is where we were last year.
Where are the patriots here?
Someone has GOT to worry more about the nation than their career