No more roll call votes are scheduled in the US Senate this week. Yesterday, was a travesty as the the Senate barely voted 50-44 to approve the controversial nomination of trial lawyer Jack McConnell to be a U.S. district court judge in Rhode Island.
Also yesterday, by a vote of 52-44, Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on S. 493, the bill reauthorizing the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, after trying to close off the amendment process.
Bloomberg News reports today, “Vice President Joe Biden welcomed congressional leaders for talks to begin ‘the hard business’ of negotiating an agreement on reducing long-term government deficits. . . . The White House doesn’t plan to offer a new proposal beyond the approach President Barack Obama outlined last month to cut $4 trillion from deficits over 12 years, said two administration officials who weren’t authorized to comment publicly.
Biden and Obama advisers set modest expectations, describing the talks at Blair House across the street from the White House as the beginning of a process.”
And according to Roll Call, “Senate Democrats won’t be putting much on the table when the first bipartisan debt panel meeting with Vice President Joseph Biden takes place today at Blair House. . . . Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears to be eyeing the less-is-more strategy . . . . [T]he Nevada Democrat is keeping his own cards close to his vest, urging his Caucus to keep its options open and waiting to see what the White House puts on the table.”
Further, Roll Call reports, “But even if Reid wanted to put a specific proposal on the table, his caucus is deeply divided over what to do, with perhaps a half-dozen approaches under consideration. Plus, the Majority Leader has already watched three in his caucus sign on to a Republican-backed spending cap, and he will have to contend with liberals worried about proposals that include deep spending cuts to their favorite programs. ‘It’s a mess,’ another Democratic aide said. Sen. Patty Murray acknowledged that Democrats don’t yet have a plan. ‘I think there is the fact that we need to come to consensus, but on what it is yet, we’re not there,’ the Washington state Democrat said.”
In contrast, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the floor this morning, laying out key principles to keep in mind for these meetings: “Even Democrats now admit that failing to bring down the debt would be far more damaging to our nation’s economy in the long run than failing to raise the debt ceiling. The situation has been described as the most predictable crisis in American history. People on both sides of the aisle now realize that the warning bells are too loud to ignore. . . . Now the challenge is achieving a result. . . .
- First: It’s time our friends on the other side stop pitting one group of Americans against another. Solving this crisis will require all of us working together. Let’s act like it.
- Second: The level of spending that Democrats want to maintain just isn’t possible without raising taxes on the middle class, which we know isn’t going to happen. We’re only going to solve this crisis by admitting up front that we have a spending problem.
- Third: Entitlements need to be a part of this discussion. So let’s drop the scare tactics and work together on reform. Nobody is talking about taking anybody’s Medicare.
- Fourth: raising taxes is the last thing we should be doing in the middle of a recession. What’s more, a bipartisan majority here in the Senate opposes it. So let’s set that idea aside and find some common ground instead. If we recognize these things we can avert this crisis. If we don’t, we won’t.
Last night, The Washington Post reported that Senior Republicans conceded Wednesday that a deal is unlikely on a plan to overhaul Medicare and offered to open budget talks by focusing on areas where both parties can agree, such as cutting farm subsidies. On the eve of debt-reduction talks, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) said Republicans remain convinced that reining in federal retirement programs is vital, but recognize they may need to look elsewhere to achieve consensus.
Today, Dick Morris is warning that "A diabolical plot is being hatched between Senate Democrats, the White House and three Republican accomplices -- Tom Coburn (Okla.), Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Saxby Chambliss (Ga.). The concept is to enact an amendment to the debt-limit extension specifying certain targets for deficit reduction and then mandating automatic spending cuts AND tax increases to take effect if the goals are not met.
This formula permits backdoor tax increases on which nobody votes and no fingerprints appear. The taxes just happen automatically -- the immaculate conception tax increase. The plan will vindicate Obama's long-term goal: to expand the size of the government's share of the economy."
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