US debt crisis: Republicans abandon vote as deadline looms
285 replies, posted
[URL]http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/29/us-debt-crisis-republican-bill[/URL]
[QUOTE][B]Hopes of the US debt crisis being resolved soon began to recede on Thursday night when the [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/republicans"]Republicans[/URL] humiliatingly failed to get even their own bill through the House,[/B] exposing deep divisions within their own party.
The Republican leader in the house, John Boehner, had to abandon the attempt on Thursday night after failing to persuade enough hardline conservatives to support his bill. He may try again on Friday.
The incident demonstrated the power of these hardline conservatives, many of them elected last November with the backing of the Tea Party movement.
The vote fiasco added to the sense of chaos and confusion as time was running out for a deal to resolve the debt crisis. With Boehner unable to control his own members, the chances of compromise with the[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/democrats"]Democrats[/URL] could be harder to achieve.
The episode may unnerve global markets still hoping for an eventual compromise.
The White House is beginning to make emergency plans for the 2 August deadline to avoid the US defaulting on its borrowing for the first time in its history, a move that could throw the US and world economy into turmoil.
Boehner had promised earlier in the day there would be a vote on Thursday on a bill to raise the $14.3 trillion (£8.7tn) debt ceiling and cutting billions in spending.
[B]
But Boehner found he could not win over enough of the conservatives to secure the 216 votes needed to get his new bill through the Republican-controlled house.[/B]
[B]
Boehner scheduled a vote for 6pm in the evening on a new bill. To the embarrassment of Boehner, he had to postpone the vote for hours as he tried to persuade enough Republicans to pass his bill.[/B]
Eventually, at 10pm, the house majority Kevin McCarthy told reporters that the vote had been abandoned for the night.
[B]
Even if the bill had been passed, Democrats in the Senate said they would kill it, as did the White House.[/B]
Fifty-one Democratic members of the Senate, a majority, published a letter pledging to vote against the house bill.
Democrats in the Senate are preparing a bill of their own but the chances are Republicans in the house would vote that down too.
Global markets, initially sanguine about the crisis and confident of an eventual compromise, were increasingly jittery on Thursday.
There were early market falls but US stocks gained and the dollar rose during the day, buoyed by unexpectedly good unemployment figures.
The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, warned: "Default will rock our financial system to its core." He expressed hope that there could still be a deal. "Magic things can happen here in Congress in a very short period of time under the right circumstances," he said.
The White House, too, expressed optimism that a compromise could be reached.
Negotiations are continuing in private between the White House and senior Republicans and Democrats on a possible short-term emergency deal. But the White House spokesman Jay Carney admitted that, in the event there is no deal, the treasury would explain its plans in detail before 2 August.
Carney said: "As we get closer to that date, the treasury will explain how it will manage a situation that is impossible." He acknowledged for the first time that the uncertainty was already causing harm to the [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"]US economy[/URL].
[B]
The White House will almost certainly make its priority paying interest on its debts so that the US does not default for the first time in its history. But the consequence could be delaying monthly payments to federal workers, soldiers and other employees, and millions of cheques to social security recipients, veterans and others. The treasury said it would release details in the coming days regarding which payments will take priority over others. It makes an average of 80m payments a month.[/B]
It also said it would go ahead with its regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month treasury bills on Monday – a day before the deadline. The money raised from that auction will go towards redeeming $87m in securities that will mature on 4 August. The treasury said this operation would not breach the current borrowing limit.
Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner has said that after Tuesday he will have exhausted all the manoeuvres he can use to clear room under the current $14.3tn borrowing limit. The government reached its borrowing limit in May. The US needs to borrow $125bn in new debt each month, in addition to $500bn in maturing debt that it must refinance each month.
The debt debate is creating bitter divisions inside the Republican party, between the newer members of Congress elected last November with the support of the Tea Party movement, which campaigned for deep spending cuts, and older members used to reaching compromises with their Democratic counterparts.
[B]
Senator John McCain, the party's presidential candidate against Obama in 2008, labelled as "bizarro" the hardline colleagues in the house who had been in Congress for only seven months.[/B]
But one of the hardliners, Congressman Joe Walsh, who is aligned with the Tea Party movement, hit back that McCain had "been in this town too long" and had helped get the US into a mess.
[B]
In the Senate, another conservative, Jim DeMint, who is closely allied to the Tea Party movement, warned that he would filibuster any Senate bill that offered only a short-term solution without significant spending cuts.[/B]
A White House adviser, David Plouffe, in an interview with MSNBC, suggested one way out of the impasse would be to amalgamate the house and Senate bills.
"What you're going to have to do is reconcile what's in Reid and Boehner, which is a lot of the things the president has talked about in terms of spending cuts he'd be willing to accept. And that's where the compromise is," Plouffe said.
[/QUOTE]
Well, we're fucked....
My pessimism hat has served me well for 4 years, and upon this news it shall serve many more fine years.
Dammit, Republicans.
Maybe we'd actually ge something done, if you didn't rely on your enemies to make the bills or proposals in the first place? I mean, how many democrat bills have there been to try to tackle this? And where's Obama's plan? (This I want a link for)
So far, the only Democrat pan I can think of is Reid's
[QUOTE=Glaber;31413927]Maybe we'd actually ge something done, if you didn't rely on your enemies to make the bills or proposals in the first place? I mean, how many democrat bills have there been to try to tackle this? And where's Obama's plan? (This I want a link for)
So far, the only Democrat pan I can think of is Reid's[/QUOTE]
Goddamnit glaber stop being such a republican mouthpiece.
The democrats have put countless times more work into solving this situation and have made way more concessions than the repubs.
If they can't even pass Boehner's piece of shit bill that would never make it through the Senate, then Reid's bill doesn't have a chance in hell.
The batshit crazy Republicans in the House will continue mouthing off to the cameras as we sail right into a default next week.
Bravo Republicans, way to continue fucking up and showing the world how much you suck. Not even their own party wanted the bill to pass, why can't Boehner just fuck off.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;31413873]My pessimism hat has served me well for 4 years, and upon this news it shall serve many more fine years.[/QUOTE]
Same here.
When you expect the worst, it's hard to be disappointed.
Man I hope when I come back from camping for a week the world won't have imploded.
[QUOTE=Glaber;31413927]Maybe we'd actually ge something done, if you didn't rely on your enemies to make the bills or proposals in the first place? I mean, how many democrat bills have there been to try to tackle this? And where's Obama's plan? (This I want a link for)
So far, the only Democrat pan I can think of is Reid's[/QUOTE]
How does it feel knowing the people who were chosen to represent you are a bunch of stubborn, indecisive morons?
A friend of mine's birthday is on August 2, and then two days later she goes on holiday...
to [i]Greece[/i]
[QUOTE=The Vman;31414261]How does it feel knowing the people who were chosen to represent you are a bunch of stubborn, indecisive morons?[/QUOTE]
you tell me. At least my "morons" are proposing bills and solutions.
Great depression round 2
[QUOTE=Madman_Andre;31414196]Same here.
When you expect the worst, it's hard to be disappointed.[/QUOTE]
I always expect the worst when dealing with American politics but I still am disappointed because the idiots in Washington always find a way to fuck things up worse then I could ever imagine.
[QUOTE=Glaber;31413927]Maybe we'd actually ge something done, if you didn't rely on your enemies to make the bills or proposals in the first place? I mean, how many democrat bills have there been to try to tackle this? And where's Obama's plan? (This I want a link for)
So far, the only Democrat pan I can think of is Reid's[/QUOTE]
REALLY GLABER?
When the democrats concede and give concessions to the republicans and do their best to be bipartisan as they have done for years now, it's STILL the democrats faults that the republicans can't act like more than children and do some compromising of their own?
Why do you support children in politics?
[editline]29th July 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Glaber;31414310]you tell me. At least my "morons" are proposing bills and solutions.[/QUOTE]
The democrats are proposing many solutions and have been doing so for a while now, more so than the republicans who have circulated a few samey bills that do little to actually help, where as the democrats have made many various concessions and changes in their own bills.
Grow up glaber.
Way to go Republicans. Way to turn something routine into some huge heated ordeal.
problems only get solved on election day #killuminati
The republicans have multiple plans. The only democrat plan is one introduced by Ried. Obama has nothing.
I mean, glaber, for fucks sakes, the republican parties current hand that they seem to want to play is to let things default then blame it all on Obama in next election season.
To me, that's more treason than a political plan.
[QUOTE=RichyZ;31414460]do you realize that dems have been proposing solutions that have republican interests in mind when making them? can't you just admit that the party you support are just a bunch of babies that either don't get what they want (.1 percent of the time) or get EVERYTHING THEY WANT[/QUOTE]
What solutions?
[QUOTE='[sluggo];31414491']The republicans have multiple plans. The only democrat plan is one introduced by Ried. Obama has nothing.[/QUOTE]
That are all samey and don't actually do anything. The democrats are at least acting like fucking adults and making concessions and changes, but the republicans? BAH, that's too lowly for them.
[QUOTE=Glaber;31413927]Maybe we'd actually ge something done, if you didn't rely on your enemies to make the bills or proposals in the first place? I mean, how many democrat bills have there been to try to tackle this? And where's Obama's plan? (This I want a link for)
So far, the only Democrat pan I can think of is Reid's[/QUOTE]
Actually, Obama's plan is described in this thread:
[url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1109979-Boehner-Out-Debt-Talks-Collapse[/url]
That's the plan that Boehner walked out of discussion over.
[QUOTE=HumanAbyss;31414503]I mean, glaber, for fucks sakes, the republican parties current hand that they seem to want to play is to let things default then blame it all on Obama in next election season.
To me, that's more treason than a political plan.[/QUOTE]
The democrats are the ones who seem to be doing that. They vote down all republivan plans to increase the debt cieling, but don't have a decent one themselves.
[QUOTE=Glaber;31414310]you tell me. At least my "morons" are proposing bills and solutions.[/QUOTE]
Oh they've been proposing something, but I don't think "solutions" is quite the right word for it.
[QUOTE='[sluggo];31414491']The republicans have multiple plans. The only democrat plan is one introduced by Ried. Obama has nothing.[/QUOTE]
They have multiple plans, but they can't seem to pass those, because of divides in the party.
[QUOTE=-Mud-;31414549]Oh they've been proposing something, but I don't think "solutions" is quite the right word for it.[/QUOTE]
How is cutting spending not a solution.
[QUOTE=The Vman;31414261]How does it feel knowing the people who were chosen to represent you are a bunch of stubborn, indecisive morons?[/QUOTE]
Juuuuuust like himself.
[QUOTE='[sluggo];31414537']The democrats are the ones who seem to be doing that. They vote down all republivan plans to increase the debt cieling, but don't have a decent one themselves.[/QUOTE]
A decent one meaning one that actually helps the country?
Right, cause I'm becoming more and more convinced that republican supporters don't actually pay attention to the people they support, and just blindly bash democrats.
The democrats have made so many changes to their bills but the republicants won't change anything in theirs.
[QUOTE=OogalaBoogal;31414561]They have multiple plans, but they can't seem to pass those, because of divides in the party.[/QUOTE]
True, the Tea partie seems to be overly optomistic about what they can pass. I think they need to wait until the next election before they do anything to major that has a hope of passing.
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