Thread: Debt Ceiling Deal, Obama, Congress strike debt deal

BREAKING NEWS says there is a deal now.

They still have to vote but both parties and the white house agree there is a deal.

Prez. on the news right now.

Whats the deal?Have they voted on it yet? missed it with prez.

Jul 31, 2011

Obama, Congress strike debt deal

By David Jackson, USA TODAY
Updated 2m ago

The full Senate and House still have to vote on the deal, Obama said at a surprise appearance Sunday night in the White House.

"There are still important votes that need to be taken," Obama said.

The proposed agreement calls for a two-tiered $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling while cutting federal spending by more than $2 trillion over the next ten years.

"This process has been messy," he added. "It has taken far too long."

Earlier post:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said negotiators are "very close" to an agreement, while House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, scheduled a conference call with his caucus.

"Discussions are underway on legislation that will cut government spending more than it increases the debt limit and advance the cause of the balanced budget amendment, without job-killing tax hikes," Boehner said. "Those talks are moving in the right direction, but serious issues remain. And no agreement will be final until members have a chance to weigh in. "

Earlier, White House adviser David Plouffe told NBC's Meet The Press that "we don't have a deal," but there has been progress and "today is obviously a critical day."

"The hours are ticking here," Plouffe said.

Over on CNN's State of the Union, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said "we're very close" and "had a very good day yesterday."

The Senate failed to break a logjam over a plan proposed by Reid, our On Politics blog reports.

The parties are racing to try to reach an agreement by Tuesday, the day the Treasury Department says it loses borrowing authority and faces default on any number of government obligations.

Details are still to be worked out, but in general, the proposed agreement includes a two-phased increase to the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The initial increase would be $1 trillion or so along with an accompanying set of spending cuts.

The proposed agreement would create a special congressional committee to recommend more debt reductions; if its plan was not adopted, automatic spending cuts would kick in.

President Obama with Republican congressional leaders.
CAPTIONBy Charles Dharapak, APPlouffe told NBC that the committee would look at "our entire deficit reduction problem," including tax changes and new government revenue.

The White House adviser pointed out that any agreement must win the approval of the Republican-run House; he noted that Boehner had trouble winning support from conservative colleagues for his own plan last week.

Boehner's Senate counterpart, McConnell, said he is looking at a $3 trillion debt reduction agreement that would include no new tax revenue, something Obama had demanded.

McConnell announced Saturday he has been talking with Obama and Vice President Biden about ways to raise the debt ceiling -- and cut the debt in the years ahead -- that could pass a divided Congress.

The outlines of a deal reportedly call for an initial debt limit increase of $1 trillion, with spending cuts of the same amount or more over the next decade, said Plouffe and other officials.

A second debt limit increase of $1.4 trillion would depend on a newly created congressional committee that would recommend similar budget cuts, including possible tax changes and changes to Social Security and Medicare.

If the committee did not act, or if Congress rejected its recommendations, there would not be another fight over raising the debt ceiling, according to the contours of the plan -- instead, it calls for automatic spending cuts that would affect key Democratic- and Republican-favored programs, notably Medicare and Defense spending.

The "enforcement mechanism" -- the "triggers" -- are a key part of the talks, officials said. "The second stage is trickier," Plouffe said.

One challenge: getting any compromise through the Republican-run House. House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did say on Fox News Sunday that things are "moving in the right direction."

Obama hasn't spoken publicly since his weekly radio address, taped late Friday.

In those remarks, Obama said any agreement must be bipartisan -- and must be completed soon, before the Treasury Department loses borrowing authority and faces possible default.

Obama said:

We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time -- bills like Social Security checks, veterans' benefits, and contracts we've signed with thousands of American businesses.

If we don't, for the first time ever, we could lose our country's Triple A credit rating. Not because we didn't have the capacity to pay our bills -- we do -- but because we didn't have a Triple A political system to match it.

And make no mistake -- for those who reflexively oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would be a tax increase on everyone -- we'd pay higher interest rates on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... bt-talks/1

We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time

Nonsense. He wanted the deal done before his expensive birthday party. I'm guessing Obama has done nothing to contribute to this "deal" but will take full credit.

Dollar Rises Against Euro, Yen, Franc as Reid Signs Off on Debt Agreement

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-245594.html

S&P Surges Gold Plunges as Reid Signs Off on Deal

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-245595.html

And make no mistake -- for those who reflexively oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would be a tax increase on everyone -- we'd pay higher interest rates on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards.

That's not true, because we're going to pay market interest rates of our own choosing on new loans of our own choosing. Rates go up and down all the time for business reasons, economic reasons as well as no reason at all, so trying to scare people with crap like this when any rate hike related to a federal debt default is wrong. In fact, rates will probably go down because no one is going to want to borrow money to buy anything unless we fix this screwed up economy and there will be more private capital available if there's a downgrade in the fed credit rating because all that money won't be uselessly parked in treasuries investing in worse than useless government boon-doggles.

No win here for the American worker only for Wall street and those in government, spend more, waste more,take more from the worker. Sorry I see nothing that will improve average Joe workers life while jobs stay in China,Ford building plant in India and more lay off's across the country we raised the debt ceiling,yep we won.