First came the Biden talks. When those blew up, the Obama-Boehner talks took center stage. And when that failed, the McConnell-Reid talks looked promising. And after they faltered, the Obama-Boehner talks tried to find a new life.
Now it’s all come down to the Boehner-Reid-Pelosi-McConnell talks to solve the debt crisis. Notably absent? The president.
Continue ReadingThat’s not to say Saturday’s congressional takeover went well.
In a frantic bid to avoid causing a worldwide economic disruption, debt negotiations have shifted wholly to Capitol Hill, as a frustrated President Barack Obama has taken a step back and allowed House and Senate leaders to try to find a way out of the debt-ceiling debacle. After congressional leaders told Obama at the White House Saturday morning they would attempt to stave off the crisis before Asian markets open Sunday evening, leadership aides raced to put together a framework that both parties could support.
With the president staying out of the picture, congressional leaders struggled to make progress on a temporary two-step solution that raises the debt limit with some offsetting cuts.
In an extraordinary Saturday evening session in the Capitol, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sat around negotiating, on their own turf, without White House aides present.
The four smiled for the TV cameras during a photo-op at the top of their 50-minute meeting, but no one would say a word about whether they had made any progress.
“Bye,” Boehner told a reporter who asked about whether he could reassure the country a deal could be reached.
But after the cameras left Boehner’s office, talks grew tense as the four argued over the contours of a package that could define the next 16 months of the congressional and campaign season - and have widespread economic implications.
Reid was “very angry” in the meeting with Boehner and McConnell, according to a Democratic official. Following the meeting, Pelosi escorted Reid back to her office because she didn’t want the furious majority leader to say anything to the press. Reid is “adamant” about no short-term extension of the debt ceiling, the official said.
For Republicans, taking the talks out of the White House has at least something to do with optics — very few Republicans want to vote for a deal with Obama’s name attached to it.
House conservatives have grown deeply distrustful of Obama’s motivations and were skeptical of the “grand bargain” Boehner was negotiating with the president. He didn’t share the details of his negotiations with the House Republican Conference and many of them were privately concerned about any agreement between Obama and the speaker, particularly on the thorny issue of tax increases.
During tense negotiations Saturday night, Reid and Pelosi signaled a willingness to consider a GOP idea to enact a two-step process, calling for trillions of dollars worth of spending cuts and extending the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion through 2012. The idea was similar to one Obama rejected in his talks with Boehner about a week back - but White House officials weren’t in the room Saturday evening.
But the leaders bitterly disagreed about the details.
Under the plan, Congress would make $1 trillion worth of spending cuts — mainly to domestic discretionary spending accounts, with no tax increases. The national debt limit would increase by about the same amount, allowing the borrowing limit to be extended until January 2012.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59737.html#ixzz1T1RYxeeS
No comments:
Post a Comment