Posted on 07/17/2011 3:39:40 PM PDT by kristinn
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 Standard & Poor’s warned last week was needed to avoid a downgrade of the United States’ first-rate AAA bond rating.
For now, both chambers are moving forward this week with votes on a tea-party-backed Cut, Cap and Balance plan that would tie a debt ceiling increase to passage of a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget and deep spending cuts. “We have to check the boxes,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “One of them is to engage in this debate,” even though he said there’s no chance the GOP effort would succeed.
The votes in both chambers appear to be designed to give Members a face-saving way to eventually vote for the Plan B proposal.
“Everyone gets to vote on their Plan A before they go to Plan B,” a Senate GOP aide said.
The proposal being written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) builds on McConnell’s fallback plan to give President Barack Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion in three installments. It would also kick the broader budget fight over that elusive $4 trillion grand bargain to a new...
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Bump the Post of the Day
Correct. I have been saying awhile that a tea party conservative President is our last hope. But even then it might not be enough. And the ship will derail. The libarals/ Marxists will start problems then and if that happens all chaos will break because people have had enough of them and all the liars.
The end is near.
And Obama will stroll in and sign Republicans surrender 'B' bill and tell the camera (voters) how disappointed he is that he couldnt get the 'big (deficit reduction) bill' because congress couldnt get it's act together, but that he is 'not giving up'.
” And Obama will stroll in and sign Republicans surrender ‘B’ bill and tell the camera (voters) how disappointed he is that he couldnt get the ‘big (deficit reduction) bill’ because congress couldnt get it’s act together, but that he is ‘not giving up’. “
I don’t know if your political wisdom is based on experience, or just an inordinate amount of “street brains” but you read the current political climate, motives and dialogue as well as anyone I know.
LOL!!
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson and I believe he is right.
TT
That is what scares me...are we all being duped by these people?
Or are things so out of control...nobody can fix it?
Republicans only have one branch of government and Democrats control the other 2. There is a limit how much power the House can muster toward bills through Congress. Obama can veto everything. His insisting on the GRAND Deal is nothing more than a trap for Republicans.
I don't doubt at all what you said. It's true, as unemployment went up, Food Stamp (SNAP) use skyrocketted. The motto of the Obamaites who took over the program is (literally): "Apply today! It's a SNAP!"
Clever.
But, as Michael Medved pointed out on his show numerous times, this program suffers from more fraud only second to Medicare.
45 MILLION people on Food Stamps.
45 MILLION.
There are not 45 million people unemployed, or underemployed. Not by a long shot.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Food Stamps, unemployment checks, Section 8 housing, and the other 63 Welfare Programs (all broken up so liberals can lie about how much they cost) are killing us. We will hit the U.S. Debt of $15,000,000,000,000 (15 TRILLION DOLLARS) sooner than we thought last week.
We are borrowing 40 cents for every dollar now.
I expect the whole shebang to collapse, and for the world to go on a single currency. That's Satan plan, and it seems to be working.
Take a look at how many ARE employed some time.
Eligibility for food stamps is not determined on the basis of employment anyway ~ and there are plenty of retirees who qualify for food stamps.
The BLS number for 2011 is roughly 14.1 to 14.5 million. Don't make me do your homework for you - look it up.
Even if you take some of more pessimistic numbers beyond the BLS figure, you don't even come close to 45 million unemployed.
Eligibility for food stamps is not determined on the basis of employment anyway ~ and there are plenty of retirees who qualify for food stamps.
Well, that's just great. So, we have people who are collecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps.....plus whatever else. On top of that, roughly half the people in the country pay no Federal income tax and have no skin the game anyway. In fact, many of those household ca$h in some more with the "Earned Income Tax Credit Scam."
Half of U.S. pays no federal income tax
The Earned Income Tax Credit Obamas Stimulus Welfare Scam
Given all of that, now can you see why we have a $15 Trillion Dollar Debt?
They make up the greater number of the people covered by Food Stamps.
That doesn't mean folks don't have skin in the game.
Let's take my grandmother (long at rest lo these many years). She had 10 kids. It was the Great Depression. They were poor. Grandpa never made enough money to pay income taxes at either the state or federal level.
Her two brothers were WWI combat veterans. Her eldest child, her only son, fought in Pelau in WWII. Three son in laws, and their 8 or 9 (combined) brothers fought in WWII, some of them in the heaviest fighting in any more any time in history.
Three grandsons served during/in The Nam. Several great grandsons have been to Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat situations.
Skin in the game?
It's our country. It was her country. If they'd had Food Stamps she'd had qualified in spades.
I'm not sure where you are coming from? Do you imagine that only people who pay cash money to the government get to be patriotic?
This is all nothing but a big “dog and pony show.” Everything was worked out weeks ago, but now is just the political theater aspect of it.
I think it's the effect intended by the first guy to build a council chamber in the half-round. It brings the stage, its players and the audience together.
“McConnell is not in the House.”
Brilliant observation. But my post concerning the possiblility of House Republicans going along with this idiotic suggestion was made in the context of the report last week that Bonehead (who, by the way, is Speaker of the House) reportedly stated that the McConnell plan is worthy of consideration. And since Bonehead carried the day among House Republicans in earlier budget negotiations, getting virtually nothing for his efforts, it cannot be ruled out that he might also be able to convince House Republicans to go along with him in debt limit negotiations.
Before you go off the rails, I suggest you explain how giving Obummer the right to raise the debt limit, in order to let Republicans pass the buck, is going to solve our debt problem.
Let's say you passed a budget and the appropriations bills that go along with it and all that's sitting there ready for a Presidential Line Item Veto, or he's already signed it and he's pondering acting under his Sequestration authority.
The McConnell bill creates the same situation.
Now, what do you think a President Nixon would cut?
How about what a President Reagan would cut? Or a President Clinton (Bill to be specific)?
Not all that bad ~ they'd play along and cut the BS pretty much.
Now, give that power to an Obama ~ what is he going to cut?
See how dangerous it is for the House to give up its prerogative that requires the President spend that which is appropriated!
And you are worried about the national debt?
First things first ~ Obama could destroy this nation in a second by simply line item vetoing out the power supply for our ICBMs. Just how much money can he borrow? And does money explode? And have nukes on hand?
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