Congressional leaders in rush for debt deal votes
Source: Agencies |
August 2, 2011, Tuesday
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Congressional leaders rushed to line up Republican and Democratic votes yesterday for a White House-backed deal to raise the United States' borrowing limit and avert an unprecedented debt default.
With scars still fresh from the months-long debate over increasing the US$14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a new battle was shaping over the incendiary topic of taxes.
Votes were expected later in the day in the House of Representatives and Senate on a plan to cut at least US$2.4 trillion over 10 years, form a new congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction package by late November, and raise the US borrowing limit through 2013.
The deal was struck late on Sunday after weeks of outright partisan warfare. President Barack Obama said the plan cuts domestic spending to percentage levels not seen in more than 50 years. But many of the Tea Party-backed Republican first-term members of the House of Representatives and their liberal Democratic counterparts remained deeply dissatisfied with the measure.
Global markets showed signs of relief yesterday after becoming unnerved in recent days by the bitter deadlock in Washington. Without a deal by today, the world's largest economy would start running out of money to pay its bills.
The Democratic-led Senate is expected to pass the deal, but it may face a harder path in the House of Representatives where both conservative Tea Party supporters and liberal lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement. But with the clock ticking, there was a general feeling that the legislation would be approved and sent to Obama for his signature to finally end a rancorous, partisan debate that left both sides fuming in the summer heat.
Congressional leaders were consulting their membership to determine who would vote for the deal and who would be against it.
Liberals have vowed to oppose it out of concern it would cut spending for popular social programs, while conservatives want deeper cuts.
While the deal means the US is unlikely to default, it is far from certain whether the plan goes far enough in reducing the deficit to save the country's top-notch AAA credit rating.
While the framework of the new deficit reduction plan does not call for new taxes, Democrats see the new congressional committee being formed as a vehicle for gaining new revenues through a reform of the tax code.
But House Speaker John Boehner, the top US Republican who is seeking to bring restive, anti-tax Tea Party conservatives behind the deal, said: "The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down."
The White House sees the issue otherwise.
If tax reform does not succeed in the new committee, Obama will allow tax cuts put forward by former President George W. Bush to expire in 2013, officials said.
White House senior adviser David Plouffe insisted yesterday new tax revenues were on the table.
With scars still fresh from the months-long debate over increasing the US$14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a new battle was shaping over the incendiary topic of taxes.
Votes were expected later in the day in the House of Representatives and Senate on a plan to cut at least US$2.4 trillion over 10 years, form a new congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction package by late November, and raise the US borrowing limit through 2013.
The deal was struck late on Sunday after weeks of outright partisan warfare. President Barack Obama said the plan cuts domestic spending to percentage levels not seen in more than 50 years. But many of the Tea Party-backed Republican first-term members of the House of Representatives and their liberal Democratic counterparts remained deeply dissatisfied with the measure.
Global markets showed signs of relief yesterday after becoming unnerved in recent days by the bitter deadlock in Washington. Without a deal by today, the world's largest economy would start running out of money to pay its bills.
The Democratic-led Senate is expected to pass the deal, but it may face a harder path in the House of Representatives where both conservative Tea Party supporters and liberal lawmakers have expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement. But with the clock ticking, there was a general feeling that the legislation would be approved and sent to Obama for his signature to finally end a rancorous, partisan debate that left both sides fuming in the summer heat.
Congressional leaders were consulting their membership to determine who would vote for the deal and who would be against it.
Liberals have vowed to oppose it out of concern it would cut spending for popular social programs, while conservatives want deeper cuts.
While the deal means the US is unlikely to default, it is far from certain whether the plan goes far enough in reducing the deficit to save the country's top-notch AAA credit rating.
While the framework of the new deficit reduction plan does not call for new taxes, Democrats see the new congressional committee being formed as a vehicle for gaining new revenues through a reform of the tax code.
But House Speaker John Boehner, the top US Republican who is seeking to bring restive, anti-tax Tea Party conservatives behind the deal, said: "The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down."
The White House sees the issue otherwise.
If tax reform does not succeed in the new committee, Obama will allow tax cuts put forward by former President George W. Bush to expire in 2013, officials said.
White House senior adviser David Plouffe insisted yesterday new tax revenues were on the table.
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