President Obama has issued a veto threat, telling "Republicans" that he would veto any attempt to wire around the automatic spending cuts that come about as a result of the failure of Cat Food 2.0.
In an unusually firm statement this evening, President Obama responded to the supercommittee’s failure to reach an agreement. First, he said, the blame lies with the Republicans, who were unwilling to consider a package that balances spending cuts with revenue. Second, he said, he would veto any efforts to lift the trigger. “There will be no easy offramp,” he promised.
His remarks had a few different audiences. What markets heard was that the White House remains fully committed to the $950 billion in discretionary-spending cuts agreed to in the debt-ceiling deal and to the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that the Budget Control Act promised would follow an admission of failure from the supercommittee. If any ratings agencies out there were getting antsy, they’re probably calmer now.
Link. Yeah, I know, it's the Post. It's just the first link I could find.
No great thoughts from me. Sorry folks, long day and my brain is too tired to process the deep implications of this. Talk among yourselves.
EDIT: OK, I have a few brain cells left. Let's see....
The spending cuts don't take place for some time, so I would imagine that a "deal" could be worked out clear up until the last minute.
However, now that Cat Food 2.0 has expired, I don't know how they'd do it with some of the extra incentives that CF2.0 included. I.E.: weren't there some "take it or leave it" provisions, and other provisions that got past the Senate 60 vote rules?