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Government & Politics
To Deal, or Not to Deal
Harry Reid and the Debt-ly Hallows
After weeks of intense debate, the White House and Congress may be nearing a deal to raise the debt ceiling, conditional on spending cuts and a tax overhaul. Details are sketchy and both Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) are adamantly denying a "grand bargain" just yet, but if early rumors are true, the deal might actually be acceptable. Knock on wood, anyway. The White House also signaled that if a deal were close, Obama would go along with a stopgap measure. But Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-NV) is threatening to cast his spell over the deal.
According to The New York Times, "the new revenue tied to the looming agreement to increase the debt limit by Aug. 2 would be produced in 2012 through a tax code rewrite that would lower individual and corporate rates, close loopholes, end tax breaks and make other adjustments to produce revenue gains." Some proposals have been floated to lower the individual and corporate tax rates below 30 percent, while eliminating some deductions. Obama's own debt commission recommended a similar formula for economic growth in December. After ignoring them in his proposed budget, and after being shaken by a steady stream of dismal economic news, Obama has apparently decided to stop ignoring them.
There have been so many competing plans and visions that it's hard to know which end is up. CNN, of all places, has a decent breakdown. Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is among those who don't know what's going on. "I'm at a point where I'm saying we need to hear from the House of Representatives," Reid said from the Senate floor Wednesday. "We have a plan to go forward over here. But until we hear from the House of Representatives, really our -- all of our work here would be for naught. I await the word from the speaker." On Thursday, Reid berated the House for planning the weekend off.
The House, of course, passed the Paul Ryan budget plan earlier this year, which failed in the Senate 40-57. The House also passed its "Cut, Cap and Balance" proposal, which would cut and cap spending combined with a Balanced Budget Amendment. The Senate under Reid's leadership hasn't bothered to pass a budget in more than 800 days, and it has yet to pass -- or even propose on paper -- any debt-ceiling deal. The Senate will vote today on a "motion to table" Cut, Cap and Balance, which would effectively kill it, after Reid called it "perhaps some of the worst legislation in the history of this country." Apparently, controlling spending is right up there with the Indian Removal Act (1830), the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), the Volstead Act (prohibition) (1919), and countless other terrible pieces of legislation (see: ObamaCare).
A final note: All of the ideas are coming from Republicans, while Democrats continue to demagogue and drag their feet. It's almost as if they want to hang a government shutdown on Republicans again. Surely, as deathly serious as Democrats keep reminding us the situation is -- that it all ends on Aug. 2 -- they wouldn't do that which shall not be named and play hollow politics with the nation's future, would they?
Keep the pressure on your Congressmen to stand strong and fight for Cut, Cap and Balance! Now, that's the All Right Idea!