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SIX DAYS AWAY from a potentially calamitous government default, House Republicans appeared to be coalescing today around a work-in-progress plan by House Speaker John Boehner to increase the U.S. borrowing limit and chop $1 trillion in federal spending.
But the White House dismissed the proposal as a waste of time, and it got a thumbs-down from Senate Democrats and tea party activists, too.
It was a telling illustration of the difficult politics along the pathway to a deal in a standoff that has put financial markets on edge. Stocks were falling sharply today.
Republican leaders worked to line up support for Boehner’s proposal, which was being retooled after nonpartisan analysts in the Congressional Budget office said it would cut spending less than he had estimated — about $850 billion over 10 years rather than $1.2 trillion. The House planned to vote on the reworked plan on Thursday, with Boehner calling it “the best opportunity we have to hold the president’s feet to the fire.”
White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed all the focus on the Republican plan as a distraction.
“Why are we voting on measures that have no chance of becoming law?” he asked with exasperation. Carney said lawmakers should stop looking for an easy way out of the debt crisis.
“People keep looking for off-ramps,” he said. “They don’t exist.”
Boehner’s proposal caught criticism not just from Democrats but from the right as well.
Tea party activists gathered across the street from the Capitol on Wednesday and urged Boehner to reject any deal that doesn’t include steep spending cuts — even if the U.S. defaults.
Tea Party Nation, one group within the loosely affiliated movement, issued an online call for Boehner to step down. But other tea party activists said the speaker needs time to strike a good deal.
Tea Party Express strategist Sal Russo said that while Boehner was trying to “salvage some small steps to fiscal responsibility, we believe his proposals lack sufficient progress in getting America’s economic future on a better footing.”
Reid’s rival proposal would deliver budget savings of a little more than $2 trillion, a half-trillion less than promised but still more than under Boehner’s plan, budget analysts reported. The Senate leader said he’d wait to see what the House did before bringing his plan to a vote.
House Democrats, for their part, focused on finding a fallback plan should the two sides fail to raise the debt ceiling before the government runs out of borrowing authority next week.
Rep. James Clyburn, a member of the Democratic leadership, said he told fellow Democrats that Obama should veto the House GOP plan for a short-term extension of the debt ceiling and invoke the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which says that the validity of the nation’s public debt “shall not be questioned.”
The White House has rejected resorting to this tactic, questioning its legality. But Democratic Caucus chairman John Larson said that with only days left before Treasury’s borrowing authority lapses, “we have to have a failsafe mechanism.”
Amid all the heated rhetoric, it was easy to miss the fact that the differences between the sides actually seemed to be narrowing.
Boehner’s plan represents significant movement from a bill the House passed last week, this one requiring less of the long-term spending cuts that had made Democrats balk. And Reid no longer is insisting on having tax increases, anathema to Republicans, as part of any plan to cut deficits.
Boehner needs to do more than pump up the legislation, however. He has to shore up his standing with tea party-backed conservatives demanding deeper spending cuts to accompany an almost $1 trillion increase in the government’s borrowing cap.
Unless he can wrestle the situation under control, Boehner risks losing leverage in his dealing with Obama and the Democrats who control the Senate.
Reid said Boehner’s original plan was destined to fail in the Senate and it drew a White House veto threat. But it was nevertheless framing the debate over how to reduce long-term deficits while raising the debt ceiling.
Tuesday’s CBO analysis said the GOP measure would cut the deficit by about $850 billion over 10 years, not the $1.2 trillion originally promised. Even more embarrassing was a CBO finding that the measure, which would provide a $900 billion increase in the nation’s borrowing cap, would generate just a $1 billion deficit cut over the coming year.
Boehner’s plan would couple budget savings gleaned from 10 years of curbs on agency budgets with a two-track plan for increasing the government’s borrowing cap by up to $2.7 trillion. The first increase of $900 billion would take effect immediately; the second could be awarded only after the recommendations of a special bipartisan congressional panel were enacted into law.
The White House says Boehner’s measure would reopen the delicate and crucial debt discussions to unending political pressure during next year’s campaigns and risk more uncertainty in the markets.
- AP
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Two years ago I had an accident that involved my hand getting cut with a chainsaw (seriously don’t ask!). It all healed up well but I developed a granuloma which is just basically a bump of gooey skin that healed to fast. I needed it removed and they gave me a date for six weeks later to get it removed. In the mean time I fell up the stairs causing the lump to just rip off. I rang to cancel the appointment because I obviously no longer needed it removed. Two years later I am still getting letters giving me new appointments because I didn’t show up for my previous one. I’ve rang every time I’ve gotten a letter to explain and they are still sending me letters. I think it’s about time that they started to worry about the people that really need day procedures and stop concerning themselves with people that don’t or aren’t bothered.
What happened?
Holding a stick and it hopped when my dad was sawing it and it pulled my hand under the chainsaw! I now only have three and a half fingernails on one hand! But hey I look real cool now!
Only when people need these services themselves or they see close friends and family suffering do they realize how big this problem is….to everyone else it’s just numbers. Our healthcare is nearly third world…god help anyone who needs it.
Our healthcare is world class – that’s part of the problem, illnesses that would previously have meant people would never even be considered for surgery are now just a routine part of the history.
Waiting lists are due to a great many things – a big one being the difficulty in emptying beds once people are well. Funding has long since disappeared for things like step down or convalescence placements, so patients end up stuck in beds that could be used to reduce waiting lists.
“Nearly third world”????? If you had ever seen a third world health system you would realise that, no matter what problems our system has, there is a VAST spectrum of quality between Ireland and the Third World.
Idiot.
I think Dominic meant in comparison to what it was, or could be, the quality of our Health System has seriously gone down hill in recent times.
I was talking to a surgeon from Sudan a few weeks ago, he told me how he and a few colleagues wanted to kit out an entire operating theatre in the Sudan with all the equipment needed to run it, from monitors to lights and operating tables. If he bought them here he’d have to buy from a prescribed list of approved manufacturers and that would cost anywhere from 300k to 500k, far beyond their budget. He asked an engineer what he should do and was told to look elsewhere, he did. He got everything he needed for less than 30k, delivered, brand new, with guarantees and support. He and his colleagues are over the moon, they can now offer a state of the art service for free, as their clients have no money to pay – in the Third World.
This is where we are going wrong. We, in the so called First World believe we have to have the equipment that carries the recognized brand names, it has to come from “approved lists” and not common sense. It should be a case of can it do the same job, is it half the price, or even better a quarter the price. If a surgeon can kit out an entire theatre for 1/10 the price it costs here then surely we’re doing something wrong.
Jed I this is true, My husband lost hip due to infection in hospital, with only one hip he could not walk, I had to fight for almost a year with HSE for motor wheelchair, I was told it would be impossible as the ones they did have cost more than 8k, I went to a place that had the type of wheelchair my husband needed, the owner said he had his name registered with HSE and his Wchairs cost 1k. I wrote a letter to HSE asking why they used a dealer who was charging 8k, when they had another dealer with almost the same type of Wchair for 1k. The nurse who helped my husband at home read it and said she would like to take letter and show it to a few in HSE. Within 6 weeks my husband had his Wchair and guess who supplied it, the dealer at 1k. I asked then who was the dealer charging 8k, of course I got no reply this was 2 yrs ago. I can verify this at any time. The special bed my husband was given is actually rented from another company, seems a lot of these beds have been rented yearly by HSE along with a lot of other equipment for a very long time. Should I push my luck and ask how much they are paying for the bed/beds, also who these dealers/companies might be. I think people have a right to know where the millions are going.
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Good friend of mine is waiting a year for a triple by-pass with no sign of him getting it!! Absolute disgrace!!
Time to strike a deal with private hospitals.
Ironically enough, i bet they can do a lot of procedures cheaper.
Don’t know if appointments to see consultants count under this…but been waiting over 12 months to see a pain specialist now!
There is a waiting list to see consultants. There is a whole series of layers before you even get in a list to get treated.
Another fail by Reilly.
My brother has been waiting for hospital
Appointment for a few months now, not terribly urgent but still needs treatment. Got appointment yesterday for, wait for it…….June 14. Rang hospital to see if it’s a mistake but no.
I have been waiting for a routine scan for 4 yrs and the hospital called me 3 weeks ago to find out if I wanted to stay on the waiting list …… My response to that person was ” well I’ve been waiting 4 yrs sure what’s another 4 ” one does not know what the other is doing in the HSE system . We are all just a number …
Does having private health insurance makes any difference?
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