The United States welcomes foreign investment. When companies from overseas buy into American firms, they provide a source of money that creates jobs and boosts innovation. But if the investor is Chinese, there is a wrinkle—increasingly, the wary eyes of regulators and intelligence officials want…
*Correction, 1/3/17: The piece originally stated that "President Trump will meet with Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Chuck Schumer on Wednesday to start on the list with a discussion of the government funding bill." Officials from the White House, not President Trump, will be meeting…
President Trump was planning to meet with Democratic leaders Tuesday to discuss a deal to prevent a government shutdown next month. But Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer canceled the meeting Tuesday morning after Trump attacked them on Twitter and said he didn’t expect to strike a deal.
The House of Representatives Friday passed a White House-backed bill that provides $15 billion for hurricane relief while raising the federal debt ceiling and funding the government until December.
One day after President Donald Trump shocked Washington by endorsing a Democratic debt ceiling plan that would fund the government for three months and provide money for hurricane relief, the Senate passed the plan by an 80-17 vote.
President Donald Trump has fiscally conservative Republicans in a serious bind.
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday voiced his disagreement with President Donald Trump’s decision to adopt the short-term timetable Democrats have advocated to raise the federal debt limit, a plan he called a “ridiculous idea” on Wednesday—but stopped short of criticizing the president himself.
Nearly a month ago, it looked as if Donald Trump could be setting himself up to leave the Republican party. His departure could either be official or de facto, but the signs were beginning to suggest that Trump, who has no real ties to the GOP establishment or its infrastructure, was putting…
President Trump sat at the inflection point of a horseshoe with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell on either side of him and Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi just to McConnell’s left. A reporter asked him if he would support Congress bunching aid money for Hurricane Harvey relief with a three-month…
On Wednesday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan called Democrats’ plans to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for just three months “a ridiculous idea.” Hours later, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi announced that President Trump had agreed to help them do just that.
The flooding and rain continues in Texas (and now Louisiana, too), but the White House is already talking about getting an emergency relief spending package through Congress next week. The Washington Post reports the funding “is expected to only be a partial down payment and serve in part to…
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans mixed it up the first several months of 2017, concocting a doozy of four parts discord and one part accomplishment. Candidate Trump made antagonism with the GOP establishment a selling point of his campaign. While that approach earned votes at…
As tension continues to mount on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned several Congressional leaders on Wednesday that America would face the debt ceiling this week.
The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with editor William Kristol on his memo to the House GOP, and how the GOP can position itself for a successful 2014.
Senator Tom Coburn tore up a poster of what he called "Congress's credit card" on the Senate floor:
Contradicting the Obama administration, Moody's Investors Service says that hitting the debt limit shouldn't be confused with default. The Washington Post writes:
President Barack Obama has said the debt ceiling is not up for negotiations. But when asked at today's White House press briefing how much the debt ceiling should be increased, press secretary Jay Carney refused to say:
Tom Cole is the kind of Republican that President Obama will need to help raise the debt ceiling. The Oklahoma congressman is a conservative, but he’s also a pragmatist and a realist who urged Republicans early on to lock in income tax rates for almost all Americans, rather than risk the…
Here's audio of then-senator Barack Obama calling a vote to raise the debt ceiling "a sad state of affairs":
At his press conference today, President Obama showed that he either thinks he can pull the wool over Americans’ eyes through the sheer force of his own outrageous rhetoric, or else he really believes his own rhetoric and is living in a fantasyland. The guess here is that it’s a roughly even mix…
I have been reading A Time for Choosing, the wonderful new e-book from RCP’s Carl Cannon and Tom Bevan about the 2012 campaign, and was really struck by this passage about the Democratic counter-punch to Team Romney. Cannon and Bevan note how Democrats decided to attack Romney as:
NBC News: "Cheney: My book will have ‘heads exploding’ in D.C."
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi announced on Twitter that she has selected James Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California, and Chris van Hollen of Maryland to serve on the joint select committee on deficit reduction (aka the supercommittee).
TWS: Wisconsin Republicans beat back Big Labor in recall elections.
For House speaker John Boehner, Tea Party Republicans weren’t the problem as he sought support for a package of spending cuts attached to an increase in the debt limit. The biggest impediment to a House majority was Republicans fearful a primary opponent would use a vote to boost the debt limit…
The talks were going nowhere. It was July 13, the fifth straight day of negotiations between President Obama and congressional leaders over an agreement to increase the debt ceiling. The hour was late when House majority leader Eric Cantor repeated the Republican preference for a short-term…
None. That’s the total of on-the-other-hand good news I have to report this week. Lest you think I am overlooking the debt deal cut in Washington last week, consider this:
There's a fascinating story over at The Hill that was published yesterday, "How John Boehner escaped disaster." I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves here, but certainly there's a storyline emerging here that when it comes to the art of the deal, Boehner is one of the more capable…
George Will: "The debt deal and Obama’s 2012 problem"
With the debt ceiling thing done, the scribes are now straining for the illuminating metaphor and “terrorism,” it seems, is the preferred choice. One New York Times columnist writes that “the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people,” and you had to wonder if he would have…
Steve Hayes, with Charles Lane and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:
Now that the Great Debt Ceiling Deal has become the law of the land, it’s time to consider what just happened to America, and in particular to America’s armed forces. On the one hand, it’s complicated. On the other hand, it’s ugly.
James Kirchik: "Why Islamist terror dwarfs Breivik's brand: Almost nobody supports 'Christianist' violence"
According to the Budget Control Act, the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called supercommittee, must be formed within 14 days of the bill becoming law. Since President Obama just signed the law, Congress has until August 16, two weeks from today, to fill the slots.…
Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Barack Obama tepidly praised Congress for passing the debt limit deal that he said will “avert a default that would have devastated our economy.” The president called the bill an “important first step” in reducing the…
Much to the frustration of the press corps and the country at large, President Obama went nearly a year without giving a press conference at a time when the country was in a rather precarious state economically and politically. Lately, however it seems that Obama has decided that the debt ceiling…
Just after noon today, the Senate easily passed the debt ceiling deal bill, 74-26. The House of Representatives passed the bill last night, and the president will presumably sign the bill today, the deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default.
The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon. No suspense there. But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit…
New York Times: "Giffords’s Return Marks Moment of Unity in Divided House"
I’m glad for the long-suffering John Boehner. I respect those who stood with him and their attempt to do the right thing as they saw it. I hope the deal—for as long as it lasts—turns out to benefit the country and advance conservative principles. I will curb my annoyance at those who triumphantly…
Earlier this evening, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending, 269-161. Sixty-six Republicans voted against the bill, titled the Budget Control Act of 2011, while an equal number (95) of Democrats voted for and against it.
Politico: "Biden: Tea partiers like 'terrorists'"
I understand the debt ceiling deal is probably going to pass. I’m not even comfortable unequivocally urging members to vote against it, given all the real loyalties and future relationships and competing responsibilities actual members have to deal with. And I’m not sure I’d urge anyone to vote…
Can the debt deal pass the House of Representatives? House speaker John Boehner has said he believes he has the votes from the Republican caucus, and Steny Hoyer, the Democratic minority whip, says he can deliver 80 to 100 votes from his side of the aisle. Key GOP House members who have said…
Anyone considering opposing the debt ceiling deal will be accused of being ... not just a hobbit (!), but also a totally irresponsible full-faith-and-credit-of-the-U.S.-government defaulter. Not so—if the anti-deal position is not pro-default.
Here’s the situation with respect to defense spending, which Speaker Boehner fought for yesterday, with some (very limited) success:
I’m pretty much where Mitt Romney is on the deal to raise the debt ceiling: On the one hand, it “opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table.” On the other hand, “I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican…
We’ve learned a lot from the fight to attach spending cuts to the debt limit increase. Here are five of the lessons:
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has just issued a statement on the debt ceiling deal, saying that he "personally cannot support the deal." Instead, Romney says, his "plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense…
The House Rules Committee has posted the entire text of the deal to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. (PDF is accessible here.) Full text, here:
John Bolton has just issued a thoughtful statement raising “serious questions ... about the national-security implications of the proposed deal to raise the Federal debt ceiling.” Bolton calls attention to the worrisome short-term defense cuts that the deal makes likely, and to the huge medium- and…
Talking Points Memo: "Reid Agrees To Major Debt Limit Deal — Here’s What He’s Signed Off On"
Speaker of the House John Boehner has put together a PowerPoint presentation (accessible here) to explain the deal reached between congressional leaders and the president to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending. Boehner spoke with Republicans on a conference call, earlier this evening, to share…
This evening, at around 8:40 p.m., President Obama announced a debt deal between himself and congressional leaders. Here is the full text of Obama's short remarks:
Members of Congress and their staff who know and care about defense are somewhere between alarmed and panicked at the emerging shape of the debt ceiling deal. (Consider this amazing on-the-record statement by Senator Joe Lieberman’s communications director to Jennifer Rubin just a few minutes ago:…
In response to last night’s Ryan-Rubio/Rubio-Ryan post, a reader sends in an image of this bumper sticker, already available at cafepress.com:
President Obama's defense secretary, Leon Panetta, sent an email message on Friday to all U.S. military personnel and all other employees of the Department of Defense about the debt ceiling.
House Republicans held a press conference in the Capitol Saturday to denounce what they called dangerous cuts to defense spending in Senator Harry Reid's debt limit bill. Buck McKeon (R, Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, warned that Reid's bill would cut defense by more than…
Reuters: "Growth anemic, debt row poses recession risk"
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan agrees with conservative national security experts that Harry Reid's debt ceiling bill is much worse than Boehner's bill for our national security.
As of this writing, the president has pulled off a great political trick, with the help of some kamikaze Republicans. He has refused to offer a deficit-reduction plan, or submit a budget, or allow the Senate Democrats to do either—and has the public persuaded that he is the man who is seeking a…
The Hill reports that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the Boehner debt ceiling plan as reducing the deficit more than Harry Reid's plan -- and that's without resorting to gimmickry regarding assumptions about war spending:
Last night, Speaker Boehner toyed with adding a gimmicky balanced budget amendment provision to the Republican budget bill in order to try to get the final handful of votes he needs for passage. He thought better of this last night, and didn’t do so. He should continue to avoid pointless and…
As President Obama watches the debt ceiling developments in the House of Representatives, it’s worth reflecting on what result he is likely rooting for.
New York Times: "Boehner, Short of Support in House, Delays Debt Plan Vote"
The Washington Post reports:
Philip Klein reports:
Economist Keith Hennessey, who has been writing extensively on the debt ceiling negotiations, writes, "I support the Boehner bill and hope House Republicans will vote to pass it." Here's Hennessey's reasoning:
Indiana congressman Mike Pence, a stalwart conservative and former chairman of the Republican Study Committee, announced today that he will vote for the Boehner bill. Pence is joined by freshman Hoosier Marlin Stutzman, who thanked the Tea Party for pushing the country to cut more.
Nancy Pelosi on today's vote: "What we're trying to do is save the world from the Republican budget. We're trying to save life on this planet as we know it today."
Despite Nancy Pelosi's obsession with political language, the former Speaker never seems to be able to contain herself from tossing off bits of rather embarassing hyperbole:
Indiana governor and budget hawk Mitch Daniels, who dubbed debt "the new red menace" during his CPAC speech this year, supports the Boehner plan:
Economist Thomas Sowell endorses the Boehner plan:
Jamie Fly, writing at National Review Online:
Keith Hennessey: "Why I support the Boehner bill"
What would President Reagan do in the debt limit battle? That’s unknowable, but we do know what his goal would be: get the best deal possible under the circumstances. Reagan never let the perfect or the unattainable keep him from achieving the good.
Former ambassador John Bolton has just released a statement of support for John Boehner’s debt ceiling plan, arguing that the speaker of the House’s plan is good for “all conservatives, especially those concerned with American national security.”
This classic Jonah Goldberg post needs no introduction. My favorite part:
While President Obama’s notion of a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction isn’t written down anywhere, it’s quite clear that it doesn’t involve repealing Obamacare (despite the fact that the health care overhaul would cost over $2 trillion in its real first decade, from 2014 to 2023). Polling,…
Washington Post: "House Republicans delay vote on Boehner debt plan"
To govern is to choose. To vote is to choose. To vote against John Boehner on the House floor this week in the biggest showdown of the current Congress is to choose to vote with Nancy Pelosi. To vote against Boehner is to choose to support Barack Obama. It is to choose to increase the chances that…
House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon has just sent around a memo to fellow Republicans on his committee, warning that Harry Reid's debt ceiling budget plan (which has been endorsed by President Obama) drastically and dangerously slashes defense spending.
Reuters: "A small majority of economists -- 30 out of 53 -- surveyed over the past two days said the United States will lose its AAA credit rating from one of the three big ratings agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch."
The White House briefing room is often known as the place where news goes to die. Reporters try hard to get the press secretary to “make news” – or say something useable for their television/radio/print/web stories of the day. They often fail, in part because the job of the press secretary, in many…
Yesterday, Allen West gave John Boehner's plan the Tea Party cred it badly needed. Now movement conservative hero Fred Thompson, who has bucked the Republican establishment before, has a message for the House Republicans: "[A]ccept a well-won victory and move on."
No thanks to President Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner seems to have come up with a plan that will avoid a government shutdown and possible default, cut spending, and not increase taxes. Some details are here.
President Obama portrays himself as the nonpartisan adult in the room in the struggle over raising the debt limit. In his nationally televised speech Monday, he placed himself above Washington’s “three-ring circus,” as someone who has “put politics aside” and is desperate for a bipartisan…
In his speech last night, President Obama once again did his reverse Harry Truman impression, showing that the buck stops anywhere but with him: “For the last decade, we have spent more money than we take in. In the year 2000, the government had a budget surplus. But instead of using it to pay off…
Reporting on its latest poll with ABC News, the Washington Post notes that Americans, including the president's base, are "unhappy" with Barack Obama's performance on jobs and the economy. Congressional Republicans, the Post writes, are also blamed for the poor economy and lack of jobs:
After hearing the president's speech last night, CNN's Gloria Borger pointed out that "nobody today is talking about tax increases, except Barack Obama."
How refreshing it is to see the actual lawmaking process finally proceeding — in the light of day — as the secretive closed-door meetings favored by this White House finally recede! This is how things are supposed to work in our republic.
I was struck by these sentences in President Obama’s speech:
This afternoon President Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney endorsed Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s debt ceiling proposal:
Here's the full text of Speaker of the House John Boehner's response to President Obama's debt ceiling address, as prepared for delivery:
Here's the full text of President Obama's debt ceiling speech, as prepared for delivery:
New York Times: "Senate and House Split as Obama Is to Address Budget"
Why, exactly, do we need to extend the debt limit to the point where the federal government can borrow another $2.4 trillion (hardly a nice round number) — about the same amount of money, even in inflation-adjusted dollars, that we borrowed to fight all of World War II? Because, as Treasury…
Senate majority leader Harry Reid introduced a proposal today that he says would give Republicans everything they want in a debt ceiling deal: It would reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion over 10 years, without raising taxes. But the plan was light on details of what gets cut--and when.
House speaker John Boehner’s new plan to cut spending while raising the debt limit faces two obstacles. It must win the votes of most of the 240 Republicans in the House. And the plan, or something like it, needs to be accepted by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. At the moment, overcoming the…
President Obama, at a speech earlier today at the National Council of La Raza, indicated that he "need[s] a dance partner here -- and the floor is empty."
NPR reports, “Former President Bill Clinton said if faced with default, he would single-handedly raise the debt ceiling using the 14th Amendment and he’d do it ‘without hesitation, and force the courts to stop me.’”
Associated Press: "Norway suspect borrowed from Unabomber's manifesto"
Soon after Mitch McConnell joined the debt limit talks, his suspicions grew. An agreement with President Obama on raising the limit by $2.4 trillion—and tied to serious spending cuts—looked impossible. The more he heard from Obama and his aides in the private sessions at the White House, the…
The debt ceiling negotiations have become a tedious game of dorm room poker. Barack Obama is the dealer, and the deck is stacked in his favor. He’s enjoying the game. Even so, he’s not as good as he thinks he is: Witness his comment last week to House Republican leader Eric Cantor, “Eric, don’t…
At a press conference early last week, Barack Obama used the first question posed to preempt another that he was certain to receive. In the summer of 2009, Obama had explained at some length that raising taxes in an economic downturn was “the last thing you want to do” because doing so would “put…
Here's an unusually lively Panel Plus discussion, the additional Internet-only segment of Fox News Sunday, highlighted by the boss volunteering the opinion that "the rating agencies are idiots."
Judy Shelton makes the case in the new issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD for the “Gold Standard or Bust.” Sound finances, she points out, require sound money, and sound money, it turns out, seems to require a dollar as good as gold—i.e., a return to a gold standard. As she puts it, “monetary policy…
As Bill Kristol writes, the House Republicans have been the only responsible players in the debt-ceiling debate, having passed actual legislation in the light of day, to increase the debt limit. Now, with all due respect, it’s time for House leaders to stay away from the White House.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced the failure of "Cut, Cap and Balance" on the Senate floor: "We just completed a very important vote. We've now demonstrated that the House Republicans' Cut, Cap and Balance is over, done, it's dead."
The Senate has voted, along party lines, to table the Cut, Cap, and Balance debt ceiling legislation passed by the House. Is that the end of the story?
O tempora, o mores! O Cicero, if thou couldst be with us now! The corruption of our age is approaching that of your own! But who speaks for the ancient Roman—and modern American!—virtues of civic duty and personal responsibility?
Bloomberg: "Democrats Balk at Possible Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"
Bloomberg: "Obama Aide, Boehner Say No Debt-Limit Deal as Deadline Looms"
Senator Tom Coburn (R., Okla.), a member of the so-called Gang of Six, slams the Senate for dodging votes and offers support for the House Republicans’ recently passed legislation to raise the debt limit in exchange for cutting, capping, and balancing federal spending. The House plan is the only…
A friend alerted me to George Will's latest column on the debt ceiling fight. You won't be surprised to learn that I agree with every single word, including pronouns and transitive verbs. Here's the gist:
The foremost obligation of the federal government is to provide for the safety of the American people. Yet as the budget debate continues, it’s becoming increasingly clear that certain politicians want to trim the defense budget in order to repurpose money for social entitlement programs, such as…
On Tuesday night, the House of Representatives voted to increase the debt ceiling in exchange for cutting, capping, and balancing the out of control spending that has left us $14.5 trillion in debt. In marked contrast, the Senate has not voted to increase the debt ceiling, and President Obama has…
James C. Capretta: "The Gang of Six Disaster: The Worst Plan So Far"
Jennifer Rubin: "The Senate adviser told me, 'I think a bunch of Republicans are buying into the Gang of Six talking points too quickly.' He predicted, 'I think most will scurry as soon as the real bill is written and all the promises prove false.'”
AP: "GOP pushes huge deficit-cutting bill through House"
In response to a question about whether now would be a good time for the president to present his own debt ceiling budget plan, White House spokesman Jay Carney had this to say: "Leadership is not proposing a plan for the sake of having it voted up or down and likely voted down..."
President Obama repeatedly insists that the debt ceiling must be raised by at least $2.4 trillion. Why this particular amount, rather than, say, an even $1 trillion or $2 trillion? Because $2.4 trillion is Obama’s estimate for what it would take to get him through the next election without needing…
Investor's Business Daily: "Budget-Cap Math Is Hard: Center for American Progress Misstates GOP Proposal"
"President Obama Calls for Shared Sacrifice and a Balanced Approach to Reducing America’s Debt," from the Democratic National Committee website, July 15:
One of the least covered aspects of the debt limit negotiations has been defense spending. Obama administration officials and congressional Democrats have indicated that the White House would like to include significant defense cuts as part of an eventual deal, even beyond the $400 billion in cuts…
Bill Kristol, with John Podesta, Liz Cheney and Juan Williams, yesterday on Fox News:
Detainee policy and "Seven Errors in Today’s New York Times Editorial"
The problem with socialists, according to Margaret Thatcher, is that “they always run out of other people’s money.” We haven’t hit that point just yet, but we have hit our nation’s legal credit limit of $14.3 trillion. To avoid defaulting on our loans, policymakers must raise that limit.
It was bad enough when Moody’s Investor Services placed America’s credit rating under review for a downgrade because our politicians can’t agree to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Now Standard & Poor’s has taken an even tougher stance. It is putting U.S. debt on “Credit Watch negative,” with…
On a conference call with bloggers today, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich offered advice to congressional Republicans who are currently in the middle of debt limit negotiations, saying it was their “moment to stand up to Obama.”
At his press conference Friday, President Barack Obama repeatedly claimed that the American people support a “balanced approach” and “shared sacrifice” when it comes to a debt and deficit solution.
This morning, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Paul Ryan blasted the president for not doing what needs to be done to avert a crisis. “The president is just unwilling to go anywhere close to the kind of spending cuts we’re going to have to have if we want to avert a debt crisis," Ryan said.
WSJ: "Bin Laden Plotted new Attack"
A core group of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives is standing firm against any deal on the debt limit that doesn’t include major budget and spending reforms. Thirty-six House Republicans have signed the “Cut, Cap, and Balance” pledge, which demands Congress make “substantial”…
Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership held a press conference in the Capitol today with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to warn of the financial calamities--market turmoil, cuts to seniors and the troops--that they say will occur if the debt ceiling is not raised…
The latest Rasmussen poll finds that "Just 34% think a tax hike should be included in any legislation to raise the debt ceiling. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 55% disagree and say it should not." In the debt ceiling debate, President Obama and the Democrats have…
Two years ago today, President Obama finally took ownership of the economy:
The debt ceiling fight has now reached a point typical of many dramas of this kind, when participants and commentators alike start to lose sight of the forest for the trees. That's inevitable. Trees are what Congress and pundits do for a living, and in any case which trees are left standing just…
Louisiana senator David Vitter just released the following statement, expressing disapproval of Mitch McConnell's proposed debt ceiling plan:
On MSNBC this afternoon, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) told Andrea Mitchell that Republicans ought to be willing to sacrifice their "sacred cows" in a debt ceiling deal if they want to see reductions to the deficit. She said the GOP should follow the lead of her own party:
In this week’s newsletter, Matt Continetti writes:
Recall the old saying: Be careful what you wish for. In the struggle over raising the debt limit, it applies to President Obama as well as to congressional Republicans.
Despite press reports that have indicated Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia would not support a debt ceiling deal that involves tax hikes, the senator won't reveal, when asked in person, where he actually stands on the contentious issue.
New York Times: "Hopes Dwindling for Compromise in Budget Talks"
Roll Call:
At a solo press conference this morning, the fifteenth of his presidency, Barack Obama was asked why a sizable part of the public does not seem convinced that the debt ceiling ought to be raised. "The public is not paying close attention to the ins and outs of how a Treasury option goes," Obama…
In a 75-minute meeting Sunday night, President Obama once again demanded that more than $1 trillion in tax increases be part of any deficit reduction package attached to a vote on the debt ceiling. In the session, Obama rejected a Republican proposal to seek $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and…
Omri Ceren writes at Commentary,
Quick, go and read super-wonk Keith Hennessey's dissection of the fuzzy math surrounding a possible budget deal. The numbers being tossed off are staggering: $4 trillion in savings over 10 (or is it 12?) years, $2 trillion over 10 years, etc. But what are these "savings" being measured against?…
There is a possibility that Republican congressional leaders will capitulate Sunday to President Obama and the forces of the status quo, by agreeing to a deal in which 1) we take on trillions more debt without any guarantee of fundamental structural budget reforms; 2) our tax burden is increased,…
Reality-based community?: "Top Obama adviser says unemployment won't be key in 2012"
James Capretta has a must-read over at NRO: "Budget Danger Ahead: How Republicans could get snookered again."
Freshman senator Ron Johnson, Republican from Wisconsin, expressed frustration today that most members of Congress are in the dark on debt ceiling negotiations.
There are many reasons to be skeptical that any likely budget deal would be worth supporting. And it’s long past time for Republicans to be planning strategically, and laying the groundwork legislatively and politically, for an outcome of no deal (or possibly a mini-deal that doesn’t sacrifice…
We worry as we prepare to fire up our barbeques, head for the beaches and ballparks, and otherwise celebrate our hard won independence from British despotism. That’s the good news, because it reflects a realization that a policy shift can no longer be postponed. By 44 to 34 percent, we have told…
Imagine the reaction if President Obama and congressional Democrats had released a sweeping health care bill, drafted in closed-door meetings, and demanded its approval by Congress immediately. There would have been national outrage over the secrecy, lack of time for public hearings, and the…
Yesterday, Harry Reid cancelled a planned Senate recess for the week of July 4, which Republican senators such as Jeff Sessions and Marco Rubio had been pushing, since the government is rapidly approaching the debt ceiling deadline of August 2. But will the Senate actually make any movement toward…
In Wednesday’s press conference, Barack Obama said:
The president talked an awful lot yesterday at his press conference about ending tax breaks for corporate jets, but closing that tax break would only amount to $3 billion over 10 years. That's 0.7% of all tax increases he desires over the next 10 years as part of a deal to raise the debt limit. Or,…
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced today that the Senate will not be observing a planned week-long recess next week. Politico reports:
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this morning that Congress will not raise taxes this year to reduce the budget deficit, favoring instead a pro-growth agreement as a solution to debt ceiling debate.
Even as they bask in good political news—Weinergate, President Obama’s ineptitude on the economy—Republicans are headed for trouble. The reason is the gap between what grassroots Republicans want and what Republicans in Washington can deliver.
Hmm: "Group Launches Effort To Draft Ryan For WH Bid"
The black day – with the red ink – arrived this week: America reached the limits of what it can borrow. But the world didn’t end, the economy didn’t grind to a halt, and the dollar didn’t collapse. This non-event is being handled by accounting sleight of hand: some $4 trillion of the $14.3 trillion…
Stanford economics professor and Hoover Insitution Fellow John B. Taylor argues that having the debt ceiling tied to spending cuts will bolster economic confidence and government credibility:
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will vote against increasing the debt limit unless President Obama agrees to spending cuts and long term reforms that satisfy the bond market, as well as foreign investors, and “astonish the American people.”
A key excerpt from John Boehner's Monday night speech on the debt ceiling:
I just ran into former White House chief of staff/Treasury secretary/secretary of State Jim Baker at Reagan National airport. After some small talk and some sharing of our pleasure at the killing of Osama bin Laden and our admiration for all involved, from the president to the Navy SEALs, we…
Donald Trump: "Always Had a Great Relationship With The Blacks"
Oh goody: "Trump Will ‘Probably’ Run as Independent If He Doesn’t Win GOP Nomination"
While President Barack Obama apparently regrets his 2006 vote against raising the debt ceiling, some of the other Democratic senators who joined him aren’t as apologetic.
As Congress considers whether to raise the debt ceiling in the coming weeks, President Obama has had to respond to questions about his own prior votes on the debt limit when he was a United States senator. Obama's press secretary Jay Carney told reporters yesterday that the president "regrets" his…