Butifldrm Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 House Votes to Extend Debt Limit to May, Averting Fight By JONATHAN WEISMAN Published: January 23, 2013 109 Comments Enlarge This ImageWASHINGTON — Avoiding an economic showdown with President Obama, the House on Wednesday passed legislation to eliminate the nation’s statutory borrowing limit until May, without including the dollar-for-dollar spending cuts that Republicans once insisted would have to be part of any debt limit bill. Drew Angerer/The New York Times Speaker John A. Boehner spoke during a brief press conference on Wednesday in Washington. The 285-144 vote staved off an impasse that could have put the full faith and credit of the United States government into doubt and potentially set off an economic disaster. Instead, the next Republican showdown with the president will come in March, when the subject will be across-the-board spending cuts first and a possible government shutdown by the end of the month. “We know with certainty that a debt crisis is coming to America. It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when,” Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republicans’ vice-presidential nominee last year and current Budget Committee chairman, said as he vowed to press ahead with deep spending cuts. To give House Republicans a rationale for giving in on the debt ceiling after dropping demands for offsetting cuts, the House legislation included a provision that would withhold the pay of lawmakers in a chamber of Congress that fails to pass a budget blueprint by April 15. That allowed House Republicans to turn a spotlight on Senate Democrats, who have not passed a detailed budget blueprint since 2009. “It took one week in which their paychecks were on the line, and now the Senate is going to step up and do the right thing,” Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said after the vote. Senate Democratic leaders shrugged off the dictate as an insignificant gimmick and claimed victory. “The president stared down the Republicans. They blinked,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, thanked Speaker John A. Boehner for reversing course and said he would take up and pass the House bill without changes as soon as next week, possibly by unanimous consent. He said he would then move quickly on a budget plan for the first time since 2009. “Democrats are eager to contrast our pro-growth, pro-middle-class budget priorities with the House Republicans’ Ryan budget that would end Medicare as we know it, gut investments in jobs and programs middle-class families depend on, and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee. House Republicans appeared eager for that fight. For two years, the House has passed detailed but nonbinding budget plans that would cut domestic programs to levels not seen since World War II, enact changes to Medicare that would offer older people fixed subsidies to buy private health insurance, and mandate a much-simplified tax code. Democrats have criticized those plans, declined to produce an alternative, and instead demanded what they called a “balanced approach” to deficit reduction. Now, Republicans said, the debate will be over numbers. “We have a budget that’s described as draconian, that decimates this program or that. They have a phrase, ‘balanced approach,’ ” said Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina. “I’m tired of debating against a phrase.” The debt ceiling legislation — devised with awareness of the constitutional hurdles imposed by the 27th Amendment on Congressional pay — would impound lawmaker salaries until a budget is passed or the 113th Congress ends, whichever comes first. And it would not require the House and the Senate to come to a compromise on the two spending and tax blueprints, which are likely to be very different. That will be the really difficult task. House Democratic leaders tried to persuade their members to vote against the deal, so as to force as many Republicans as possible to vote to do something most said they would never do: lift the debt ceiling. But 86 Democrats voted yes, more than enough to let 33 Republicans vote no without bringing the bill down and handing Republican leaders an embarrassing defeat. House Republicans say punting the debt ceiling to May 18 is not so much a retreat as a “re-sequencing” of the coming budget showdowns. House Republicans now take for granted that the first deadline, March 1, will come and go, and $110 billion in across-the-board spending cuts to military and domestic programs — known as a sequester — will go into force. “The sequester is going to go into effect on March 1 unless there are cuts and reforms that get us on a plan to balance the budget over the next 10 years. It’s as simple as that,” Mr. Boehner said. The next real showdown will come by March 27, when the stopgap measure financing the government expires. Republicans have made clear that they are willing to let the government shut down at that time to force deep spending cuts or changes to Medicare and Social Security that would bring down deficits in the long run. Such continuing brinkmanship brought a rebuke from Mrs. Murray, who said Republicans were trying to have it both ways, forcing Senate Democrats to move forward in an orderly way with a budget plan by mid-April, but threatening the next budget crisis weeks before that. The pay provision brought its own protests. Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, called it “institutionalized bribery,” since it effectively says, do what Republicans want or do not get paid. That was why the nation passed the 27th Amendment, which says Congressional pay cannot be varied within a single Congress. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/us/politics/house-passes-3-month-extension-of-debt-limit.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dog53 Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Hmm How long can we keep kicking that can down the road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butifldrm Posted January 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Hmm How long can we keep kicking that can down the road. Hopefully long enough for the Dinar to Revalue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nani? Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Don't know why everyone freaks out about these things the government can do what they want and so tada let's just push this back a little and worry about it then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandyf Posted January 24, 2013 Report Share Posted January 24, 2013 Foregone conclusion quote name='sandyf' date='22 January 2013 - 09:12 AM' timestamp='1358820779' post='1095991'] US: The House will consider legislation Wednesday that would suspend the... US: The House will consider legislation Wednesday that would suspend the statutory debt ceiling until May 19, 2013. Under the bill drafted by House Republicans, the statutory debt ceiling would be increased on May 19 to reflect the borrowing that has occurred between now and that time. The bill also mandates that if either the House or Senate fail to pass a budget resolution by the statutory deadline of April 15, the members of that chamber will have their salaries delayed until a budget is passed or the final day of the 113th Congress in January of 2015. Source: Market News International (MNI) – A Deutsche Börse company 22. January 2013 04:27:41 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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