Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has, according to his spokesman, “signed off on the debt-ceiling agreement pending caucus approval.” Reid told reporters earlier that he hoped a vote in the Senate would be possible as early as this evening (A GOP source counters that this is not in the cards). Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) tells reporters that she hasn’t seen all the details of the final proposal, and couldn’t guarantee her support, or the support of her caucus. “We all might not be able to support it, or none of us may be able to support it,” she said.
Clearly, a significant chunk of Pelosi’s caucus is outraged. Progressive Caucus chairman Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.) said the proposed deal “trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it.” Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D., Mo.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, called it “a sugar-coated Satan sandwich.” The two chairmen have scheduled a joint-press conference on Monday to call on President Obama to raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th amendment.
In the Senate, GOP support for a deal seems a matter of mere formality, especially given that conservatives members don’t seem to be planning to hold things up. House Republicans, on the other hand, are still looking to bring a significant number of the members on board with a final deal. An aide tells NRO that defense cuts remain the sticking point — both in terms of the trigger mechanism and in the amount of up-front cuts to the defense budget. “If the numbers don’t add up, we could lose 40 to 50 members,” the aide said. That is on top of the conservative defectors that House leaders already expect will oppose the plan, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), who was one of 22 Republicans to vote against House Speaker John Boehner’s (R., Ohio) deficit plan. A group of reporters caught Chaffetz on his way to Sen. Mike Lee’s (R., Utah) office on the Senate side of the Capitol. Asked about the reported deal, Chaffetz said he would not be inclined to support a final deal that did not require the passage of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. He sounded rather pessimistic about the GOP whip count in the House. “Speaker Boehner’s going to have his hands full,” he said.
Both parties have planned meetings or conference calls with their caucuses, but are still awaiting final details.
I can only hope this frankenstein of a bill cooked up by the so-called "leadership" of both parties dies a quick death. Let the Democrats sign onto to CCB is they want to avoid their self-imposed "default" deadline. The Republicans need to ditch both Boehner and McConnell, both pseudo-Rs and certainly not conservatives and in no way are they leaders.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis deal puts our country trillions more in debt and requires either massive tax increases or massive cuts to our national defense.
NO Republican should vote for this. It will be a catastrophe.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusethe two chairmen ??? of made up groups ... toothless special interest victim grievance groups at that ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse“..a sugar-coated Satan sandwich."
Oy. The Unhinged Liberal Nutcase is 90% myth and 10% this guy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe more I read about this "deal" the worse it sounds.
If this is the best they can do, we are screwed. So is the GOP for that matter.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusethats the spirit ... we fight a battle to a stalemate and its time to give up completely ...
you will notice it hasn't been voted on yet ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnd yet, it is the GOP that is portrayed by the media as nasty, mean, ill-mannered, divided and divisive and unwilling to do what's right for the country.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Tea Party controls only 1 house of Congress...this is the best possible deal we can get with Democrats in control of the other 2 houses.....Lets get what we can get and then focus on 2012 so we throw Obama and other "progressive" Democrats out so we can start to take control of our future.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHuge win for Obama...No cuts til 2013...He gets $2.8 Trillion credit card...He doesn't have to raise the debt ceiling before the election...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHuge loss for Boehner...When will House Republicans throw him out as Speaker, he is a disaster...
What should he have done?
1) Stick with Cut, Cap, and Balance...Negotiate from strength..Wait for Senate to pass a plan...Appoint strong negotiators to conference committee...
2) Boehner plans A,B,C were a sign of weakness and divided his caucus...He ended up attacking his own members who were conservatives.
3) If all else fails, pass a $100 Billion Debt Ceiling Increase ..Make the Dems go thru this every month...That would end the media hysteria over "August 2nd"...like
CNN's "Get it done"..Is that news reporting or fomenting panic and hysteria?
From what I'm hearing no real cuts happen until after 2013, which means - no real cuts ever. Nice job Boehner!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePelosi couldn't see the final details of the Obamacare bill but that didn't stop her. "Lets pass it first and then see what's in it." Pelosi is the liberal's creature. They can have her. Pelosi's parents should have been alot more pro-picky
Jer 6:15
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
Some liberals are so radical they think anything that isn't is.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHow can this be better than leaving the debt ceiling in place? No cuts until 2013 and another two trillion in the whole. No wonder Obama likes it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy is Boehner looking for votes when he is the majority leader? Conservatives should take this as their cue that Boehner is not one of us. A good man, perhaps, but not the right man.
This is not why the Tea Party threw their support behind the Republicans. It may be why the Tea Party forces many of these Republicans to face primary challenges in 2012.
BTW: a third party is not the way to go. We have to fight a two front war against RINOs and Democrats. Letting a Democrat win anything would be like letting Germany win in the European theater just because you thought Eisenhower wasn't as aggressive as MacArthur.
In the end we have to support the Republican in the general election but we must try our best to defeat the RINOs in the primaries.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo, let's see: We fail to pass an increaase in the debt ceiling - we don't default, because there is enough revenue flowing in to pay our creditors, and even Obama wouldn't dare to not pay S.S. or Medicare - but after that it's in the hands of the President and Geithner.
Does anyone think that the very next checks to go out wouldn't be the ones to keep buying off all of the Democratic welfare voters?? Of course they would! The payments to Republican voter bases, on the other hand, the money that actually buys goods and services such as those to defense contractors etc., would be the ones that did not get mailed. The military would get pinched - not paychecks, just everything else.
National Parks and other such attractions would close immediately, and student loans would be jammed up, because those things would elicit the most outrage. All targets for de-funding would be determined on a totally partisan basis. Is that a good way to win broad conservative support?
I see no rational justification for putting this kind of power over the purse into the hands of such a hypocritical, bitter partisan, one who has demonstrated time and again that he seeks crises to further his radical goals. Let's grab the deal and move on to 2012.
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