Posted on 10/13/2013 1:24:09 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The White House and the Senate are working to squeeze House Republicans into accepting a bipartisan compromise from the upper chamber to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.
Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama’s signature achievement.
House Republicans are fuming over the prospect that Senate Democrats and Republicans are working on a plan to jam them with a last-minute deal they would have to accept or risk triggering a federal default.
“They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going to roll over and take that,” House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters after a Saturday morning conference meeting.
Senate Democrats reasserted themselves Saturday in the government funding and debt-ceiling debate after talks between Obama and House Republicans collapsed the previous day.
After Obama gave House Republicans reason on Thursday to hope for concessions, Senate Democrats reined those expectations back.
They do not intend to grant Senate Republicans any significant victories in exchange for opening the government or increasing borrowing authority, dimming the possibility of a deal before stock markets open Monday.
Senate Democrats rejected a proposal sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), which many Senate Republicans hoped could lay the groundwork for a deal.
“It is not going anyplace at this stage,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters. “Number one, it opens the government; number two, it extends the debt ceiling. But other than that there is little agreement with us.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee, told Collins on the Senate floor the proposal was unacceptable because it would lock in federal spending for six months at the levels set by the House GOP, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
Senate Democrats instead want to craft a budget deal that would eliminate the so-called sequestration levels.
Senate Republicans warn Reid will face a public backlash if he refuses to seriously consider what they consider a pragmatic offer from Collins.
“If they reject a good-faith offer and everybody in the middle would define Collins as a good-faith offer, then the charade that they’re negotiating would fall apart,” said a Senate GOP aide.
The Collins plan would fund the government at an annual rate of $986 billion for six months; extend the debt limit until Jan. 31, 2014; delay the medical device tax for two years and provide federal agencies greater flexibility to manage spending levels under sequestration.
It would also set up an income verification process to prevent fraud in the healthcare insurance exchanges and convene bicameral budget talks with an end-date of Jan. 15, 2014.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) dismissed a six-month stopgap at House GOP funding levels.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) suggested a deal could hinge on getting Republicans to agree to higher funding levels for fiscal year 2014.
“It has to get down to this budget number,” he said.
He downplayed the notion that Reid is preparing to make any significant concessions, however.
“Some would call it negotiation. It is basically staking out positions,” he said.
Durbin said the two-year delay of the medical device tax has received a tepid reception in the Senate Democratic caucus.
“It’s been mixed,” he said. “First, it has to be paid for. Second, I don’t think the elimination is the best way to approach it. We already got a call from the American Hospital Association this week, [who] said, ‘Oh, so we’re going to open all the taxes under the Affordable Care Act.’”
Democrats view funding government and raising the debt-ceiling as congressional responsibilities that do not merit concessions.
“They’re not doing us any favor by reopening the government. They’re not doing us a favor by extending the debt ceiling. That’s part of our jobs,” Reid told reporters.
Senate Republicans, distressed by their party’s plunging approval rating and the danger of a severe reaction in the stock markets Monday, are eager to find their way out of the jam.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who stayed out of the battle between Senate Democrats and House Republicans over the government shutdown, began the first serious negotiations with Reid Saturday.
They met with Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democratic leader, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) in Reid’s office at 9 a.m.
Republicans viewed it as a promising sign.
“Reid and McConnell are talking now and those discussions continue so I see that as progress,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).
“There are a number of different elements,” he added. “The fact that they’re actually talking for the first time represents significant progress.”
Not all Republicans embraced the Collins plan. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a leading Tea Party voice, warned GOP leaders not to give up the fight to defund ObamaCare.
“Providing significant relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting because of ObamaCare, that should be the focus,” Cruz told reporters.
Alexander said the reaction from House conservatives is not his top concern.
"We can't control the House. We have to do the best we can, send it to the House, and they have to do the best they can," he said.
Democrats downplayed the prospect of reaching a deal anytime soon. Instead they called for Republicans to reconsider their opposition to a 14-month clean debt-ceiling increase, which failed to clear a 60-vote hurdle in the Senate.
“The conversations were extremely cordial, but very preliminary of course, nothing conclusive,” Reid told reporters.
While Obama has let Senate Democrats again take the lead in the negotiations, he remains in close coordination with his allies in Congress, according to Senate Democratic aides.
Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders traveled to the White House to meet with Obama Saturday afternoon.
They reviewed the recent options raised by Republicans and recent days but decided to hold off on jumping on any of the offers until Republicans consolidate their position.
“Their conclusion was that while Democrats remain united, Republicans have yet to coalesce behind a clear negotiating position,” said a Senate Democratic leadership aide.
“The President and the leaders agreed that talks between Senate Democratic and Senate Republican leaders should continue in the coming days, but Democrats' position remains the same: Democrats are willing to negotiate on anything Republicans want to discuss as soon as we reopen the government and pay our bills," the aide added.
Unlike the fractured GOP conferences, the Senate Democratic caucus has not shown any cracks.
“We had a very good caucus today. Democrats were unified and were all united around the principles of open the government, pay our bills and let’s negotiate,” Schumer told reporters after Saturday’s meeting.
Every Senate Democrat voted earlier in the day to move to a clean 14-month extension of the debt ceiling. Reid changed his vote to no so he could bring the measure up again in the next few days.
The White House said it would provide no readout of the meeting.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) attended the meeting...................."
Cadre of EVIL and VILENESS.
Cockraoches are not EVIL and VILE like Reid, Durbin, Murray, and Chuck the Schmuck....and the KING of EVIL, Obama.
It would also set up an income verification process to prevent fraud in the healthcare insurance exchanges and convene bicameral budget talks with an end-date of Jan. 15, 2014.
So it will need more financial info from applicants....AND...another set of software programs to do the verification......AND...the "Navigators" get more access to your financial data.
Needs to be rejected.
Quixotic Queries Question Quality! - At healthcare.gov, the plot thickens
......"This points to bad management, lack of accountability, and a broken contractor procurement process.".....
Once the Marxists have seized power, the will twist and distort everything in their drive for power and control. Republicans are handicapped by the fact that Obama is quite willing to inflict whatever amount of pain and destruction on the citizenry to assure his victory. Once again, the GOP is losing the messaging fight both because the major media is the enemy and because Boehner and McConnell are simply awful in representing conservative ideals. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and energized conservatives are the future of the party if the GOP has any future. The vicious attacks on Cruz are like the attacks on Palin and show just how much the GOP old guard is more aligned with the Democrats that conservatives. The current battle over the budget, debt, immigration and Obamacare will decide if there will be two parties or a Republicrat party which has a Potemkin Village illusion of a two party system.
Democrats in the Senate hold this position: As soon as we win everything we want we will discuss it with you losers.
Any Republican who believes that is more stupid than Sheila Jackass Lee.
So the GOP has gone from defunding ACA to delaying ACA back to defunding ACA by delaying the medical device tax?
I guess so. Clever, huh? :)
The last step is defunding obamacare by pin pricking condoms.
“Risk triggering a Federal Default”
Actually, the government (actually the Federal Reserve) has been doing this monthly ever since Obama has been in office. They’re ginning up $85 billion per month out of thin air, and none of this is ‘debt-limited’...it is ether - electronic scrip. They spend half on US Treasury Notes and the other half on the stock market.
They realized they could get away with this because no one from the outside audits the Federal Reserve and because they got away with doling out TRILLIONS to foreign banks during Obama’s Incarnation Ascendency...
One big giant linguistic scam meant to instill fear even though the government has $250 Billion/month rolling in from taxes and FICA OASD and Medicare contributions. What they are worried about are the illegal entitlement payments that have no legitimate budgetary or Constitutional basis.
I think analogies of this fight to the ‘war of Northern Aggression’ are appropriate. I just haven’t figured out if this is ‘Fort Sumner’, Gettysburg, or Appomatox.
We must go after the optics (propaganda) apparatus. It’s my feeling that when each of the major outlets contributed their part to the Zimmerman affair. Their part could be singled out for public display in a combined effort so that the public at least would start questioning what they’re getting from them.
We’re paying for the 2012 dumb campaign where these issues such the ACA (Obamacare)should have been brought up but wasn’t. Now the stuff is comming out in dribs and drabs and the media is burying it. Or countering it with outright lies.
Give the dems an 11th hour 3 month debt limit increase, then return to defunding ACA.
Obama probably wants a default anyway. Force the Senate’s hand and let him reject it for all to see.
GOP should defund the TV news networks. Raising taxes on the liberal media companies and outlets, and devolving the FCC so states can regulate propaganda sources would help our democracy.
Any emerging deal, however, will leave ObamaCare largely intact, angering conservatives who have demanded defunding or delaying President Obama's signature achievement [sic]. "They are trying to jam us with the Senate and we are not going to roll over and take that," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters after a Saturday morning conference meeting.
Of course she did.
Maryland "Freak State" PING!
Of course she did.
Maryland "Freak State" PING!
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