White House joins Reid-McConnell side talks on fall-back plan

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

The White House has joined secretive talks between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to craft an escape plan should lamwakers fail to reach a deal for raising the debt ceiling.

Reid said he is negotiating a solution partly based on McConnell’s proposal to give President Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling three times unless Congress disapproves. He said the talks are ongoing with McConnell and “a number of different people from the White House.”

The involvement of the White House signals that the fall-back plan might be gaining new steam as the talks on a bigger deficit bargain turn into a partisan blame game. House conservatives have said they do not support the McConnell plan.

Reid said his work with McConnell “is not the only plan” available, but Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, given the legislative calendar, an alternative such as the McConnell-Reid proposal will be necessary if another deal cannot be struck this week.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/171565-white-house-joins-reid-mcconnell-side-talks

[tekisui]

1. Is this the BOLD move?

[zalinda]

2. I doubt it, and the dems will regret it, if it happens.

With all the cutting going on, I don't see the economy improving in 2012, so the dems will lose.

zalinda

[TrollBuster9090]

8. Obama still has a secret weapon I'm hoping he'll use when all this is over.

He still has about 40 billion in stimulus money he hasn't spent.

Get this dumb shit with the debt limit resolved, and then just DUMP that money into infrastructure projects all at once. First day of September.

[No Elephants]

10. Guess that's why Rethugs have been saying August 2 is not a real deadline.

[deacon]

14. That would be great. n/t

[asjr]

3. This is a pile of crap. Those tea party

"Republicans" who just got into office should be tried for treason for not upholding their oath of office. They are there for the country--not some out of their minds people who are holding a gun to their heads if they don't follow orders. How in hell did we ever get to this point in time.

[No Elephants]

5. Well, among many other things, "we" took the Constitutional issue off the table.

The GOP, the Party of NO.

The Democratic Party, the Party of VERY clean tables.

[TrollBuster9090]

9. Oath of office? They're more concerned about their oath to GROVER NORQUIST. nt

[No Elephants]

4. "Giving" the POTUS power to ask Congress three times is not

giving him anything. Indeed, it may be taking something away from him, depending on the wording.

The POTUS has always had the power to ask Congress anything he wants as many times as he wants. Of course, Congress can always refuse him all or some part what he wants, but that is the case with this alleged power as well.

There must be more to this than I've read or heard so far.

[roxiejules]

6. Joint committee to review entitlements

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mcconnell-proposal-would-force-major-review-of-entitlements/2011/03/03/gIQA50iAGI_blog.html


The key part of the new McConnell package is a joint committee to review entitlements in a massive deficit-reduction package. Unlike the Bowles-Simpson commission, this committee will be mandated to have a legislative outcome — an actual vote — that will occur early next year.

At a minimum, if this does happen, it means that entitlements may detonate again as an issue just as Campaign 2012 gets under way in earnest.

[RBInMaine]

7. And taxing the rich will detonate again too.

[TrollBuster9090]

11. That's okay. This is all just cosmetics designed to free Republicans from their own rhetoric anyway

So, to avoid being assasinated by their own psychotic base, the Republicans will be able to say that, even though they raised the debt ceiling by 2.5 trillion, hey!...we got a VOTE on a balanced budget amendment (which will never be ratified by the states) and a VOTE on cuts to entitlement programs (which would never pass the Senate). Nice going.

[No Elephants]

12. There's the next skid down the slippery slope I've been posting about for a couple of weeks.

P.S. And there will be more. Bet on it.

[roxiejules]

13. +1

n/t