Gang of Six Proposed Debt Deal
President Obama held a quick press briefing earlier today (guess we were all listening to the Murdoch drama) to provide an update on progress towards a debt deal:
The National Journal provides the five page outline of the Gang of Six deal. And it is a Gang of Six again, since Coburn has joined back up. President Obama specifically singled this effort out for some praise in his briefing, and a couple of the articles I’ve read say that this has significant support in the Senate. It is hard to see how this gets through the House.
The outline provided has little in the way of detail and promises alot of work by various committees to actually come up with cuts or revenue enhancements in the areas discussed. They call for increased tax revenues of $1 billion, but they also claim that the CBO would find their plan provides tax cuts to the tune of $1.5 trillion. It also has this bullet point:
Reform, not eliminate, tax expenditures for health, charitable giving, homeownership,and retirement, and retain support for low-income workers and families.
There’s a framework for Social Security reform, but only if they can get the Debt Reduction actions done.
There’s not enough here to say much about this — other than this looks like a five page framework to kick the can down the road again. This does — pretty clearly — count on the Congress to do its job re: the pursestrings.
Tags: 2011 Federal Budget
President Norquist will never sign off.
Gang would be the appropriate description. Have you called Coons or Carpers office today? Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has a bill to stop any/all cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid. Called Coons and Carpers office and this is what I was told by Carpers Communication Director. “Senator Carper will not be signing on to Senator Whitehouse resolution, you can go to the Senators website and see how he believes these programs shouldnt be cut, however he is looking out for future stakeholders and therefore can not commit to Whitehouse’s legislation. We have been in contact with Senator Coons office, and he too will not be signing on to Whitehouse’s legislation”?
Question: Does Coons do what he is told by Carper? Will Carper give the elderly, disabled and poor a kick in the ass? You bet he will and so will Coons.
There is a major game being played by both parties, all of it appears to be in secret. If anyone actually believes the dems wont cave, think again. Just like single payer, extentions of these illegal wars, keeping Bush’s tax cuts, the democrats are caving into the minority in the repuke party. So, if all those polls show 70% of Americans want no cuts to these social safety nets, why would democrats cave on an issue where the majority of americans support them? We are screwed by the corporates in both parties.
It sounds as though President Norquist is losing in the Senate. Maybe. The House is likely hopeless.
But I’ve been listening to NPR since 4 and this is the current narrative: President Obama is still looking for a compromise position, the Senate Gang of Six has crafted one compromise that the President thinks is the right direction and the House indulged in wanking today.
None of this gets to a deal, of course, but it interests me that the media story is shaping up to isolate the House (Republicans) as the source of the problem.
I can’t see this as anything but a loss for Grover Norquist and the Tea Party. Way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory guys! It might have the added advantage of ripping the GOP apart. I think the details will be important but NPR was reporting 3:1 cuts:revenue (mostly through changes in the tax code). We are losing one program from the ACA, a long-term care insurance program that will suck mightily.
None of this gets to a deal, of course, but it interests me that the media story is shaping up to isolate the House (Republicans) as the source of the problem.
Yes, it’s exactly how it’s being played. Plus it’s the truth. The bad side effect is that Mitch McConnell is suddenly seen as some kind of centrist. I think this is an establishment move to break the hold of the Tea Party.