<p>[Republicans</a> delay vote on Boehner debt bill - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-delay-vote-boehner-debt-bill-213952900.html]Republicans”>http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-delay-vote-boehner-debt-bill-213952900.html)</p>
<p>Perfect. Another day gone by.</p>
<p>Boehner doesn’t have the votes. That’s why he had to delay the vote; he doesn’t have enough votes to pass it. But if he does manage to pass the bill, Reid has already explained that the Senate will immediately reject it out of hand. These guys need to get together and make an agreement that will pass both houses. And the clock is ticking.</p>
<p>there is no real cut in boehner and Ried plans, only “cut” from proposed increase. we still spend a lot more each year and will owe 7 more trillion in 10 years.
We will be forced to cut like greece.</p>
<p>I’ll tell you what I really can’t tolerate listening to at the moment. Partisans from either side blaming their “opponents”. The louder the screeching the more it turns me off.</p>
<p>What is so terrible about Boehner’s bill? It raises the idiot ceiling so SS can go out. It requires some cuts and it calls for committees to explore revenue enhancement (taxes).</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t get why the tea party hates it. I don’t get why the democrats are acting as if it’s Armageddon. </p>
<p>A little perspective from these people would be very nice about now.</p>
<p>The Boehner bill and the Reid bill are pretty much the same in terms of cuts, but Boehner sets up another debt ceiling vote in six months. We’d have to go through all this again in six months. That’s not what the Tea Party folks object to, but it’s what the House Democrats object to.</p>
<p>I think if I had to hear this all over again in 6 months (starting in 4 months), I would go nuts. You would think we would all start to become numb to this stuff after a while. </p>
<p>Is there a reason why they can not agree to raise the debt ceiling, but require that XX dollars be cut/saved from the NEXT fiscal budget? Without actually saying what programs they will target? Since this debt ceiling is really related to a budget and spending that they already approved/agreed to/spent?</p>
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<p>The Tea Party folks won’t agree to that. They will not agree to raise the debt ceiling under any circumstance. </p>
<p>Other Republicans would be reluctant to agree to that because they know full well they can’t bind their future selves. Now, Boehner and Obama were trying to negotiate a deal where if a future agreement didn’t take place, other laws, laws that one side or the other would oppose, would come into effect. I don’t know what the threat to the Republicans was, but Boehner wanted an agreement such that if the Democrats didn’t make the cuts in the future, the health care individual mandate would be eliminated. But Boehner eventually walked out of those negotiations, so we don’t know whether such an agreement could have been negotiated, or, if it was negotiated, could have been passed.</p>
<p>Actually, the second round of debt ceiling increase would be automatic in the Boehner bill, if both house of Congress approve the commission’s additional $1.8 trillion in cuts on an up or down vote.</p>
<p>The top priority for the Democrats is to take this issue off the table until after the 2012 election. The top priority for the tea party congress critters is to not extend the debt ceiling, and thus (in their view) force the government to cut spending by 40%.</p>
<p>Both positions, IMO, are reasonably subject to ridicule.</p>
<p>I disagree that it’s intolerable to revisit this in six months. I think it’s been sobering for the country to watch this and begin to comprehend the magnitude of the problem. I think four months from now it would be good to re-visit. Very good. I think the dialogue needs to continue and I think we all need to pay attention to what is going on. Also, I think we need to demand shared sacrifice from all – not just the other guy, which seems to be the American Way now.</p>
<p>We should pass something that is fictional, more funny-money fiscal policy so that Americans can get back to ESPN or American Idol and not have to tax their brains thinking about the deficit?</p>
<p>^^^She’s joking.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I’m trying to find a text of the Boehner bill, or any verification that your description of the process is correct. In particular, I’m trying to find verification of this:</p>
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<p>Every description I’ve seen says that Boehner’s bill merely raises the debt ceiling by $900 billion, while cutting about $917 billion. That is only enough to get the country to Christmas. I have seen no verification that this particular bill, the one they’re whipping right now as I type, has any second stage, or any commission, at all.</p>
<p>It’s not that I dont want to think about the deficit. But this argueing and banter is absolutely sickening and mind numbing. And the amount of misrepresentations make it almost impossible to really understand what is happening, and who is doing what. So revisiting THE DEBT CEILING in 4 months is horrible. If they want to continue some level of productive discussion and real idea dialogue about cutting the deficit, I can go for that. But childish grandstanding needs to go away.</p>
<p>I still would like to see all of what the “Gang of Six” has agreed to. Only rumors there.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang:</p>
<p>That’s because the media is so inept. </p>
<p>The Boehner bill is a two stage bill. A 12 member congressional commission (half from each party, house and senate) will come up with a $1.8 trillion (over ten years) package by the end of the year. That package will get an straight up or down vote in both houses (just like the base-closing commission). If the additional savings pass both houses and get signed into law by the President, there is an additional $1.6 trillion in debt ceiling. If not, then the debt ceiling stays at the $900 billion from round one.</p>
<p>Here’s the summary from the House Rules Committee website:</p>
<p>[House</a> Committee on Rules -](<a href=“http://www.rules.house.gov/News/BlogArticle.aspx?NewsID=447]House”>http://www.rules.house.gov/News/BlogArticle.aspx?NewsID=447)</p>
<p>Don’t even bother trying to read the actual bill. I skimmed it last night and these bills might as well be written in greek.</p>
<p>The problem is that the majority of the “cuts” will happen several years from now when most these people are no longer in power and the new guys can change it again.</p>
<p>I see. I didn’t find the language of the bill particularly difficult. As you say, 3 House Republicans, 3 House Dems, 3 Senate Republicans, 3 Senate Dems will meet to agree on a $1.8 trillion package. If seven of them can agree, the package, with no amendment, goes to a vote in both houses. And that vote is a de facto debt ceiling vote, which means that it would be accompanied by just as much politicking as we see now. If seven of the committee members could agree, it would be another debt ceiling vote just before Christmas. That commission would be a political circus, starting the minute Boehner, Pelosi, Reid and McConnell started deciding who to appoint.</p>
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<p>That’s only one of several problems. The other is that you can really only impact discretionary spending, which is a fairly small part of the overal government expenditure. It’s a tough, long-term challenge. Ultimately, the real solution is to get a handle on the growth in government spending and then let the economy grow out of the hole. That’s how Clinton ended up with signficant projected surpluses.</p>
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<p>I never got to the commission part. I got bogged down in the budget authorization caps and realized that I would be better off finding a summary!</p>
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<p>True. On the other hand, Obama was (and apparently still is) willing to sign a way bigger deficit reduction package right now.</p>
<p>And what’s the point of doing this all over again six months from now? If the Republicans and the Democrats can’t make a deal now, why would they be able to make a deal in the middle of election season?</p>
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<p>Boehner was apparantly happy to negotiate a deal that would give the whole debt ceiling increase now, but the deal had to include the whole package of budget cuts up front, too. That deal proved to be unachievable. The Dems insisted on tax increases; the Republicans in the House simply will not vote for tax increases. and, that is the crux of the issue.</p>
<p>The Boehner bill is a stop gap, basically designed to buy six months. It even has the addition spending for Pell Grants and continutation of the SS tax moratorium that Obama wanted.</p>