Obama, congressional leaders don’t make headway on debt limit

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Washington Post

Talks between President Obama and congressional leaders Sunday evening failed to break a partisan stalemate over how to raise the federal borrowing limit, leaving the politically charged negotiations in limbo with three weeks remaining before the administration says the country will begin to default.

Two of President Obama’s top advisers had said earlier in the day that he would continue to press for a far-reaching, $4 trillion deal to cut the deficit, despite new opposition from Republican leaders to such a compromise.

The White House meeting adjourned after 80 minutes without agreement over how far the parties should go in cutting the deficit over the next decade and whether tax cuts and entitlement reform should be a part of any deal.

White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said on the Sunday political talk shows that Obama still believes in a deal that would reduce the deficit through a combination of spending cuts, entitlement reforms and tax increases. . .

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-will-still-seek-a-4-trillion-debt-deal-despite-gop-opposition-aides-say/2011/07/10/gIQAOKq86H_story.html

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80 minutes, that's it? Guess they got nowhere. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid still safe for now. This is going to be a crazy next 10 days.

[plumbob]

1. Gosh, a whole 80 minutes? Just long enough to prove there was a

meeting and drink some coffee, perhaps a nice pastry, smoke a bit?

Kind of like an AA meeting, but without any chance of success.

[Dept of Beer]

2. It's encouraging. Perhaps this is not theater after all.

We'll see.

[SoutherDem]

3. It is too soon...

It has been made clear we have until August 2nd.

For a deal to be hashed out before 11:45pm August 1st means the loser can't explain how they didn't have a choice.

Also, if a deal is made any earlier there would be time to read the bill, the loser nor winner want that. By the time the American people know what was really given away they will have moved on to something new in the news cycle.

[PSPS]

4. "whether tax cuts and entitlement reform should be a part of any deal"

The White House meeting adjourned after 80 minutes without agreement over how far the parties should go in cutting the deficit over the next decade and whether tax cuts and entitlement reform should be a part of any deal.

Perhaps it was a mistake missed by the editors, but how did "tax cuts" suddenly come into play? He probably meant tax increases, but a 30-year habit of always typing 'tax cuts' is hard to break. It's probably a hot key on the reporter's keyboard.

In any case, I still think this is all mere theater where the GOP's professed position is really intended to provide political cover for Obama while he does their (and his too, really) dirty work. Then we're told that what was done was "a necessary compromise."

This is the exact scenario they played for both health care "reform" and extending the bush tax cuts.

[pinto]

6. Oh come on. It's all so Obama can do the Republicans' dirty work?

And they're providing cover for him? Do people really believe that?

Yeah, there's a theatrical component to it all, as with all politics, but some grand conspiracy is a stretch, in my opinion.

:hi:

[PSPS]

7. No, I'm not saying Obama is doing the Republicans' dirty work.

What I'm saying is that what we end up with is likely what Obama wants and believes in and the rest is theater. This includes the show he put on to get elected. Obama's performance since his election reveals him to be quite the conservative, just not the "crazy" kind.

[pinto]

8. Thanks for your response. What role do you think Congress plays in it all?

:hi:

[gateley]

12. Congress can either make it or break it, right? Coming to

an agreement is only part of it, getting your party to support your position is another (although the Republicans do whatever their leaders tell them).

Unless Obama can bypass them -- is that possible?

[RBInMaine]

9. So how is life out on the fringe?

[quakerboy]

5. So in other words trial baloons were floated

The entire left was infuriated, Seniors scared to high heaven. And the President didn't even get a deal done.

In the mean time we are all just left to wonder exactly how bad it will be in the end.

[RBInMaine]

10. A deal will get done, actual governing requires compromise, and the Pubs KNOW it must get done or

THEY will be ANIHILATED in 2012. Obama is the smartest chess player in the world. He has said over and over that he is willing to go with a balanced approach that will anger the wings of both parties. If the RePUKES hold out and allow default over private jet tax breaks, they KNOW that they are TOAST next year.

[soryang]

11. Compromise or cave in?

Maybe we can get eight additional years of Bush tax cuts from Obama, in addition to "entitlement reform."

[gateley]

13. I actually heard that Boehner agreed to let the extension quietly

end. Don't know if that's true, and even if it is, plenty of the others would raise holy hell.

It has to be a compromise. That's real life and that's politics.

[JDPriestly]

14. No surprise that T. Geithner wants "entitlement reforms."

Pete Peterson chaired the committee that appointed Geithner to the NY Fed. Geithner is anti-Social Security.

That is most likely because Geithner wants to give our Social Security money to Wall Street to gamble with and to get commissions on. Our 401(K) system is a cruel joke. Now they want to do to our Social Security money what they did with our 401(K) money.

I say "No. No. and again No." Don't let Wall Street steal your retirement savings the way they did the 401(K)s of your parents' generation.