McConnell Offers Backdoor Plan To Raise Debt Limits

The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to increase the nation's debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions. Those increases would automatically take effect unless both the Republican House and the Democratic Senate enacted legislation disapproving them.

Obama would be able to veto such legislation, giving him power to muscle through the debt increases.

The GOP plan would require that Obama submit spending cuts along with his borrowing requests. But unlike the increase in the debt limit, they wouldn't automatically take effect.

The new mechanism would take the place of the White House debt negotiations between congressional leaders and Obama. Those talks over spending cuts and tax increases have grown increasingly acrimonious.

McConnell offered the plan just a couple of hours before he went to the White House for the third round of budget talks in as many days. The two sides are increasingly at odds over Democratic demands for revenue increases to accompany the $4 trillion-plus in spending cuts demanded by Republicans as the price for maintaining the government's ability to borrow to meet its obligations.

Tuesday's negotiating session began shortly before 4 p.m. EDT.

McConnell said he offered the unusual proposal because it had become clear the negotiations weren't going anywhere.

"I had hoped all year long that the opportunity presented by his request of us to raises the debt ceiling would generate a bipartisan agreement that would begin to get our house in order," McConnell said. "I still hope it will. But we're certainly not going to send a signal to the markets and the American people that default is an option."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and private market experts have issued dire warnings of the effect a potential default would have on the still-struggling economy, including a possible downgrade in the government's AAA bond rating, higher interest rates and panic in the markets.

"Let me be clear: the debt limit will be raised," Geithner told a symposium Tuesday. "Failure is not an option. Both sides understand what is at stake and will come to an agreement."

Obama himself warned in a CBS News interview that he couldn't guarantee that Social Security payments would go out as scheduled on Aug. 3.

An aide to House Speaker John Boehner, the Ohio Republican, said Boehner

shares McConnell's concerns about the lack of progress in the talks. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia said Cantor feels that the McConnell proposal could be helpful.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, said he had spoken briefly to McConnell about the idea and said he would consider it.

The sweeping new power would only be in effect through the remainder of Obama's term.

McConnell's plan would permit an immediate increase in the debt limit of $100 billion while Congress debates whether to disapprove of it.

McConnell's proposal came after a days of partisan sparring and a particularly poisonous exchange of volleys Tuesday morning.

McConnell blasted the White House for overstating its willingness to cut spending.

"The savings they were supposedly willing to support were at best smoke and mirrors," McConnell said.

Boehner went on the attack as well, telling reporters: "This debt limit increase is (Obama's) problem and I think it's time for him to lead by putting his plan on the table — something that Congress can pass. Where is the president's plan? When's he going to lay his cards on the table?"

Responding to Boehner's comment, Carney pointed out that it is Congress' responsibility to vote for an increase in the debt ceiling.

"The president doesn't have a vote in this," he said. "It's Congress that has to act." He said Obama will be in office for at least another 18 months, and "the American people expect Congress to work with him."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/12/137800976/mcconnell-offers-backdoor-plan-to-raise-debt-limits?ft=1&f=1014

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GOP Presidential Hopefuls Weigh In On Debt Ceiling

As a group, the Republican candidates see the issue as an opportunity to portray President Obama as a big spender who lacks leadership skills on the economy. By pressuring their party leaders in Congress not to compromise with the White House, they have added another complication to an already-difficult political calculus.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/13/137801119/gop-presidential-hopefuls-weigh-in-on-debt-ceiling?ft=1&f=1014

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McConnell Proposes Congress Punt Debt-Ceiling Power To Obama

In a proposal that appears to be mostly about finding a way to raise the debt ceiling while protecting his fellow congressional Republicans from having to vote to do so, Sen. Mitch McConnell has suggested a way in which Congress could effectively give President Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling.

But it would also seem meant to potentially put Obama on the defensive by having him take the political heat for raising the debt ceiling. Repeated polls have found a majority of Americans opposed to a higher debt ceiling.

McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, is proposing a legislative maneuver that would give lawmakers the opportunity to reject a debt-ceiling increase.

Under McConnell's plan, a "resolution of disapproval" to boost the debt-limit by $2.5 trillion would be introduced in both chambers with a majority of lawmakers voting for the resolution. In other words, they would have the chance to vote against any increase.

 

Obama would then veto the resolution, a veto Congress would be unable to override with the required two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. That would allow the U.S. to legally go beyond its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and avoid a widely feared, first-ever general default by the U.S. government on its obligations.

A passage from a Politico article provides a sense of why senior Senate Republicans like the idea:

"It gives the president 100 percent of the responsibility for increasing the debt limit if he chooses not to have any spending reductions," Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican Conference chairman, told reporters Tuesday.

How the plan will sit with House Republicans is unclear. But it offers an escape valve for those in the Senate GOP who fear that if the current crisis persists they will be forced to accept some tax revenue increases as part of any settlement.

Worth noting is that Congress generally guards its prerogatives jealously, stoutly resisting yielding this kind of power to a president.

The very fact that Senate Republicans are putting forward such a proposal could be read as a sign of their mounting anxiety about a possible default as the Aug. 2 deadline approaches.

It also suggests how much political gamesmanship is involved if Senate Republicans are now willing to hand over such power to Obama.

It appears to be a case of accepting a short-term loss if the long-term gain is to increase Obama's chances of being a one-term president. McConnell has said publicly that a one-term Obama is his goal.

It's not just about putting pressure on the president, of course, but on congressional Democrats.

McConnell's proposal would require several votes as the debt-ceiling would be increased in stages. That would mean congressional Democrats would have to go on record more than once with votes to increase the limit, if they decided to rally round their president. In short, it would a Republican political ad makers dream.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/07/12/137798961/mcconnell-proposes-congress-indirectly-give-obama-debt-ceiling-power?ft=1&f=1014

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Op-Ed: White House Suicide Policy Falls Short

The White House announced President Obama will begin sending condolence letters to the families of armed service men and women who kill themselves in combat zones. Forbes blogger Susannah Breslin argues the policy falls short, overlooking suicides committed by service members outside combat zones.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/12/137795822/op-ed-white-house-suicide-policy-falls-short?ft=1&f=1057

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138 Minnesota Lawmakers Are Accepting Pay Despite Shutdown

This weekend, The Minnesota Star Tribune printed a list of 138 legislators who are still collecting paychecks despite the state government shut down. The paper reports that Gov. Mark Dayton, as well as 14 senators and 48 representatives, announced they would not accept pay as long as the shutdown lasts.

But that means that 72 percent of Republicans are still cashing their paychecks and 65 percent of Democratic-Farmer-Labor party members are still getting paid.

The AP reports that news has angered some public employees.

"None of them should be getting paid," Mike Lindholt, a furloughed Department of Transportation maintenance worker told the AP. "If you don't do your job, you don't get paid. That's how it is for most people."

But perhaps the news making the most noise is that Gov. Dayton has declared about half his staff "essential" — including his personal chef and a housekeeper. The AP reports:

Republicans have ridiculed Dayton over the fact that the housekeeper and personal chef at the governor's mansion were deemed "critical" employees, prompting the governor's office to announce that Dayton would pay the chef out of his own pocket.

As for the housekeeper, Dayton spokeswoman Katharine Tinucci said the governor's residence is a public building that's nearly 100 years old.

It "requires a significant amount of maintenance and upkeep," she said. "So it is being staffed at minimal levels during the shutdown."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/07/11/137775336/138-minnesota-lawmakers-are-accepting-pay-despite-shutdown?ft=1&f=1014

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Karzai's Half-Brother Assassinated In Kandahar

In Afghanistan, the half-brother of President Hamid Karzai was assassinated at his home in the southern part of the country, in the city of Kandahar Tuesday. Ahmed Wali Karzai was repeatedly accused of corruption and of having links to drug trafficking, yet the Afghan president continued to defend him.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/12/137784161/karzais-half-brother-assassinated-in-kandahar?ft=1&f=1004

barak obama hillary clinton george w bush nancy pelosi harry reid

Rescue Your Reading With 3 Superhero Sagas

Moviegoers' fascination with superheroes may be dying down, but author Mat Johnson knows that caped crusaders are alive and well in the medium that started it all. These three books will be kryptonite to your comic book woes.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/12/137470405/rescue-your-reading-with-3-superhero-sagas?ft=1&f=1057

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