The GOPers put a bill out there.. the only piece of legislation that will stem a default. They’ve done what they can... the ball’s in the dems’ court now. Now, just have to keep Boehner from caving to a bad deal, like he did re: the FY 11 budget. Any proposed deal must be vetted by the full GOP to avert another blunder.
For weeks, the dominant storyline in the ongoing (and ongoing and ongoing) debt limit negotiations has been the fissure between establishment Republicans and the tea party wing of the GOP.
That all changed Thursday when reports began to surface that a deal that would include $3 trillion in spending cuts — including to entitlement programs — was being hashed out by the White House and House Republicans.
Congressional Democrats — as expertly detailed by the Post’s Paul Kane — reacted angrily to the idea, insisting that such a deal would amount to declaring defeat (politically and otherwise) when victory was in sight.
What the episode proves — for the billionth time in the history of politics — is that what’s good for the goose (Obama) is not always good for the gander (congressional Democrats).
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Debt talks bring tensions between Democrats, Obama to surface
Just as Senate Democrats were sitting down Thursday to a scheduled meeting with White House budget director Jacob J. Lew, rumors of a new debt-limit deal between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) flashed across their BlackBerrys.
One after another, Sens. John F. Kerry (Mass.), Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and others demanded that Lew explain what the president was doing.