We feel pretty much the same way about this plan. (Source: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
There's
yet another proposal in the works on the debt-ceiling, this one from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which would couple McConnell's rather convoluted capitulation with big spending cuts. And no new revenues.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is working with McConnell on this approach. Aides said the two are discussing a strategy that would pair McConnell’s debt-limit proposal with at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts identified through bipartisan talks that Vice President Biden has led in recent weeks.
The deal also could create a committee of 12 lawmakers who would be assigned with identifying trillions of dollars in additional savings. The panel’s recommendations would be fast-tracked to votes in the House and the Senate and would not be subject to amendment, a process similar to the one Congress uses for closing military bases.
Congressional Democrats welcomed the approach, as did rank-and-file Republican senators. The Obama administration has reacted more cautiously, but views the approach as a last resort.
HuffPo's Sam Stein has a bit more:
The basic premise is to blend the debt ceiling deal crafted in talks led by Vice President Joe Biden with the plan that McConnell proposed this week, which would give the president authority to raise the debt ceiling while vetoing corresponding cuts.
As the dual plan is envisioned, House Republicans would be able to claim that they passed a deal without including revenue raisers or tax hikes. The president, meanwhile, will be able to move the debt ceiling debate into 2013, albeit while having to hold a largely pre-determined vote for a second extension (once the $1.5 trillion in cuts run out) before the election. Democrats would have to swallow a deal that didn't include revenues, but they will have protected entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare from cuts.
"It is a hybrid approach," said the Democratic official familiar with the proposal. "It is a way to get us some cuts now while making sure we have an option that we do not default on our debt."
Oh, just brilliant. We would get cuts, another pre-determined vote before election that again hangs the deficit around Obama's neck, and no revenue increase. And huge cuts to Medicaid, which were offered in the Biden talks. That's snatching defeat from the jaws of a potential clean debt ceiling vote. And on top of that it creates a new "deficit commission" compromised solely of lawmakers who would be tasked with finding additional savings in the budget," that would get "automatic, amendment-free votes in both chambers of Congress." You know how that would turn out: Republicans on the commission would demand privatized Social Security and Medicare and the Democrats would end up compromising the programs away.
There are a few realities that Democrats, including the President, are just going to have to recognize and deal with. 1) The Republicans don't care about the deficit. 2) They will use the deficit as a political tool against the Democrats no matter what deal is worked out. 3) The Bush tax cuts and the wars have driven the deficit and the fight to end them is going to have to happen no matter what they come up with in a deal now. The nation can no longer afford them. 4) Cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid will be hugely unpopular with the people, and all politicians will be punished if they enact them.