Posted on 07/25/2011 6:07:48 AM PDT by RummyChick
A Republican aide e-mails me: “The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Interesting if true. I have believed all along that what is being discussed is not the real goal or issue in this whole mess. The point is to force a wedge between the Tea Party and Republicans before 2012. The only thing acceptable to Obama will be a tax increase so that the TP will be furious with Republicans and run some third party candidates. They know that splitting the conservative vote is the ONLY way they can maintain any power after 2012.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2011/07/25/debt-limit-spin-wars/
Debt Limit Spin Wars
12:25 pm July 25, 2011, by Jamie Dupree
Democrats are pushing back furiously against stories being circulated by Republicans on Capitol Hill that there was a bipartisan House-Senate deal for a short-term debt limit increase on Sunday which was later rejected by the White House.
Republicans claimed this morning that a deal had been struck between Speaker Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but that President Obama refused to accept it.
But Reid’s spokesman Adam Jentleson sternly denied there was any such agreement, and that the Senate Majority Leader never took any short-term debt extension to the White House for review by the President.
That certainly meshed with Reid’s statement from Sunday night, in which he rejected Republican plans for a smaller increase in the debt limit as unacceptable.
“Speaker Boehner’s plan, no matter how he tries to dress it up, is simply a short-term plan,” Reid messaged, adding, “it is a non-starter in the Senate.”
But Republicans on both sides of the Capitol said there had been work on a bipartisan deal going on between the Reid and McConnell staffs over the weekend, though the evidence was lacking that an actual deal had been reached.
“The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan,” a senior Republican aide on Capitol Hill told me on Monday.
Another senior Republican aide on the House side of the Capitol confirmed that story as well.
The supposed agreement though sounded much like what Republicans have been trying to sell in recent days - a short term extension of the debt limit of about $1 trillion into next year, and then the creation of a special committee to wring out even more budget savings later.
“Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no,” the GOP aide said.
But on Monday morning, Reid’s office angrily denied that story line from the Republican side, and made clear in no uncertain terms that it was not true.
“Any reports that Senator Reid or his staff signed off on or agreed to a Republican plan yesterday are unequivocally and completely false,” said Reid’s spokesman Jentleson.
“Republicans are pushing a false account of a White House meeting they were not involved in. Our office never signed off on any proposal with Republicans. Senator Reid did update President Obama on the status of the staff talks that had been occurring throughout the weekend. But in the meeting, Senator Reid made it clear that none of the proposals produced by the talks satisfied his bottom line of avoiding a short-term increase of the debt ceiling. Likewise, President Obama and Leader Pelosi agreed that the talks had not produced anything that met our unified bottom line of avoiding a short-term deal.
“Yesterday’s talks broke down because Republicans will not move off their insistence on a short-term proposal, which will risk many of the same dire economic consequences for American families that would be triggered by default itself.”
Meanwhile, the White House stepped up its own attacks on Republicans, charging that GOP leaders were the ones walking away from deals on the debt limit.
“Speaker walked away twice from fair deals backed by the public,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney in a late morning Tweet.
“THAT’S indefensible,” Carney wrote, as he accused House Republicans of risks to the “economy by refusing to compromise.”
jbendery jennifer bendery
GOP aide confirms: Boehner will lay out debt plan to GOP members at 2pm that includes spending caps & balanced budget amendment.
from another thread:
John Boehner calls Rush. Rush’ report of conversation:
FIRST ROUND:
1.1 trillion in cuts (no denfense cuts)
1 trillion in debt increase
no tax increases
Commission of 6 members of each chamber to recommend the cuts
SECOND ROUND would require a vote on the balanced budget amendment
Would cuts be now or later? (the panel will decide that).
Rush: So we don’t know what the cuts are or when they will occur.
This plan takes us to next April.
He'll either get the spending increases he wants with little in spending cuts or imaginary cuts - This hurts America, because the spending will be used to get him reelected and to redistribute wealth throughout the world.
Or, he'll take the nation into default, ruining our credit and flat-lining economic growth.
Either way, his objective is fulfilled. To him, it is a win-win situation.
Default is not paying interest on our debt.
“Debt service” includes interest on the debt, and scheduled redemptions, no?
we now have an override option.
Not exactly a conservative position. There is no telling what kind of horrors would await us if such a thing would come to fruition. Certainly the enviro-nuts have their own "constitution" already written and ready to be foisted upon the masses, to say nothing of the 2nd amendment (remember how anti-gun Biden is).
“If he has narcissistic disorder, this is going to end very badly.”
Yeah and IF the Sun rises in the East tomorrow it will set in the West.
Not while we hold so many governorships and upper/lower chambers in so many states now. Lets face it, only a few amendments could pass a 3/4 vote right now, budget balancing and term limits might be the only two that could muster the votes needed without interference from the idiots in Washington .
Let the environuts demand their changes, no way they will pass at this time with the legislatures in office today. 2 years ago might have been a different story, but not right now. Pushing through the two amendments right now and in this way might just pull us from the brink we are teetering on, and reassert the States role in power where it should always have been.
If I didn’t think we are coming down to a time when TSHTF then I would agree it would be nuts to go this route, but we HAVE to get new blood in there and we HAVE to stop the spending.
Who would you rather trust with your families future right now to do the right thing for future? 3/4 of the states with a majority of Republican led legislatures... or Obama, the Senate, and with a very tiny majority on the SC to keep them in check?
I would gamble our future with the States than Washington at this time. (How sad is that we have to talk about gambling at all??)
Absolutely agree. As a reader of Matthew Bracken's books, I know the LAST thing we want in this country is a Con Con.
Yes, it's fiction. But hard to believe what's going on in this country now is not .... or maybe just a nightmare.
Zero must have the full debt increase to survive the next election, anything less and he’s toast!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.