Debt negotiations melt down as
Congress prepares to recess
The Debt
limit negotiations lead by VP Biden imploded this past Thursday when House
Majority Leader Cantor (R-VA) announced on Thursday that he was not attending
any more meetings. The House Leader acknowledged that good work had been done
when it came to coming up with spending cuts. The reports around Capitol Hill
are that the debt limit negotiators have all but agreed to cut around
$2Trillion in spending. But then tax increases began to creep into the discuss
until finally an idea was introduced by the democrats around the negotiating
table that up to $400 Billion could be raised if taxes were increased for
businesses and the so-called wealthy in America. It was at this point that Cong.
Cantor said he could no longer be a part of these negotiations. Cong. Cantor
said: "There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don't
believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic
situation. Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be
resolved before discussions can continue. Given this impasse, I will not be
participating in today's meeting and I believe it is time for the president to
speak clearly and resolve the tax issue. Once resolved, we have a blueprint to
move forward to trillions of spending cuts and binding mechanisms to change the
way things are done around here."
Within a few
hours, Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) also announced that because of the introduction of tax
increases into the debt limit negotiations, that he too would not be attending
any more meetings. Sen. McConnell took to the Senate floor and made the
following statement: “We’ve known from the beginning that tax hikes would be a
poison pill to any debt-reduction proposal. Those who are proposing them now
either know this or need to realize it quickly.” Sen. McConnell then said:
“President Obama needs to decide between his goal of higher taxes, or a bipartisan plan to address our deficit. He can’t have
both.”
By week’s
end, the President had asked to meet with Sen. McConnell on Monday, June 27 and
then with Sen. Reid, the Senate Democratic leader. These separate meetings are
aimed at seeing if the overall debt negotiating team has any chance of being
revitalized. Assuming these Monday meetings result in the debt negotiators
coming back to the table, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has asked
that she now have a seat at the table when or if the meetings resume.
In the
meantime, the House of Representatives went out on Friday to reconvene on
Wednesday, July 6. Before the adjourned for the 4th of July, they
were able to pass the Patent reform bill. That bill passed by a vote
of 304 to 117. The House also passed a three week extension of the Federal
Aviation Administration. This agency is now operating under its 20th extension.
This means that Congress has failed to give this very important agency a full
year of funding 20 different times.
Finally, the
House defeated a resolution to authorize limited support for our military
mission in Libya. That resolution failed by a vote of 123 to 295. They also
failed to limit the amount of money spent on our mission in Libya. That
resolution failed by a vote of 180 to 238. After all was said and done, the
House did not conduct a vote that would have in effect authorized the use of
funds or troops in Libya. Clear as mud huh? The House Leadership couldn’t craft
a resolution that would authorize the military action in Libya, even on a
temporary basis. Given that failure, instead of sending a bad message to our
troops, they decided to give our troops a victory in
Congress by defeating efforts to cut the money or limit the scope of the
mission.
Meanwhile,
over on the Senate side of the Capitol, the Senate was debating a bill that is
designed to streamline the nomination process in the U.S.Senate. The “advice
and consent” process has become too time consuming and
the number of confirmable positions needs to be reduced. During the debate on
the bill
Sen. Vitter (R-LA) offered an amendment that would end the practice of the
President appointing Czars. The amendment failed by a vote of 47 to 51.
Democratic Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Sen. Manchin (D-WVA) supported the
amendment. However, even if the two missing GOP Senators were present and
voting, the amendment still would have failed to pass by only garnering 49
votes in favor of ending the practice of hiring Czars.
The Senate
will resume this nomination reform bill next week. They will also pass the
three-week extension of the FAA bill and also consider a resolution being
negotiated between Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Kerry (D-MA) regarding limited
authorization for our troops in Libya. By week’s end the Senate will recess for
the 4th of July holiday to reconvene July 11th.
Meanwhile,
the clock is ticking loudly on the time bomb, better known as the debt limit
increase. Congress must extend our borrowing authority in the form of
increasing our debt limit on or before Aug. 2. Otherwise the U.S. government
will not be able to pay all of its debts. The President will be put in a
position whereby he must decide which bill gets paid using the money that comes
into the treasury through other means such as excise taxes and fees.
Stay tuned
to see how the Monday meetings go with the two Senator Leaders and our
President. Also see if former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is able to muscle her way to
the debt negotiating table when or if the negotiations resume.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired,
elected United States Senate Secretary for the Majority and Minority. Currently
she is a senior legislative adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the
founder of GradeGov.com
