Dems Keep Job-Destroying Default Clock Ticking With Political Games

July 30, 2011

Republicans Have Given Democrats Options to Call the President’s Bluff Today

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s deficit plan is the only plan that at this point hasn’t passed a single house of Congress, and may not pass any house of Congress.

The problem with Reid’s plan is that fails to address our current fiscal crisis and is filled accounting gimmicks that “just don’t add up.”

Two plans that can stop the default clock from ticking have already made it halfway through Congress. Why won’t Democrats call the president’s infamous “bluff” and stop the default clock today?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s deficit plan is the only plan that at this point hasn’t passed a single house of Congress, and may not pass any house of Congress:

REID PLAN REJECTED BY THE HOUSE: (H.R. 2693, Sen. Harry Reid’s “Budget Control Act of 2011,” Rejected 7/30/2011)

REID’S PLAN MAY NOT EVEN PASS IN THE SENATE HE CONTROLS: “Senate Democrats started Saturday short of the 60 votes needed to advance Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to raise the debt ceiling, setting the stage for frantic hours of negotiations before the threat of default early next week.

“Senior officials in both parties believe that Reid’s latest plan — which would allow President Barack Obama to raise the debt limit in two separate stages of $1.2 trillion each without congressional approval and slash up to $2.4 trillion over the next decade — appeared unlikely to break a filibuster early Sunday morning — a vote currently scheduled for 1 a.m. ET.” (Manu Raju, “Harry Reid Scrambling for 60 Votes,” Politico, 7/30/2011)

The problem with Reid’s plan is that fails to address our current fiscal crisis and is filled accounting gimmicks that “just don’t add up.”

REID’S PLAN DOESN’T ADD UP: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) newest plan to cut the deficit includes $1 trillion in ‘savings’ from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the numbers just don’t add up. …

“The $1 trillion in defense ‘savings’ that Reid is claiming his plan provides is based against a projection the Congressional Budget Office put out last March that said war costs would top $1.67 trillion over the next ten years. However, that projection was never meant to accurately forecast the costs of the wars over the next decade. …

“The reality is that it is impossible to estimate the costs of the wars, because fundamental questions about U.S. policy toward both countries remain unanswered. For example, will the Afghanistan drawdown be complete by 2014, and what will be the pace of the drawdown? Will all U.S. troops be out of Iraq by the end of the year?” (Josh Rogin, “Harry Reid’s Fuzzy Math on Defense Savings,” Foreign Policy’s “The Cable” blog, 7/25/2011)

Two plans that can stop the default clock from ticking have already made it halfway through Congress. The only thing keeping the job-destroying default clock ticking is the Democrats’ refusal to pass just one of these plans in the Senate:

PASSED BY THE HOUSE: A COMPROMISE PLAN TO CUT SPENDING BY $917 BILLION, AVOID DEFAULT: Final Vote: 218-210. (Roll Call Vote 677, Clerk of the House, 7/29/2011)

PASSED BY THE HOUSE: “CUT, CAP AND BALANCE”: Final Vote: 234-190. (Roll Call Vote 606,Clerk of the U.S. House, 7/19/2011)

Once upon a time, Reid supported the plan that was passed last night by the House. But President Obama rejected the compromise worked out between House and Senate leaders. Why won’t Democrats call the president’s infamous “bluff” and stop the default clock today?:

THE COMPROMISE PLAN WAS ONCE SUPPORTED BY SENATE DEMS: “[W]hile the Senate is struggling to pass a bill filled with phony accounting and Washington gimmicks, we will pass another bill – one that was developed with the support of the bipartisan leadership of the U.S. Senate.” (“Speaker Boehner’s Address to the Nation on GOP Plan to Address America’s Debt Crisis,” Speaker of the House John Boehner, 7/25/2011)

REID EVEN TOOK THE COMPROMISE PLAN TO THE PRESIDENT: “A Republican aide e-mails me: ‘The Speaker, Sen. Reid and Sen. McConnell all agreed on the general framework of a two-part plan. A short-term increase (with cuts greater than the increase), combined with a committee to find long-term savings before the rest of the increase would be considered. Sen. Reid took the bipartisan plan to the White House and the President said no.'” (Jennifer Rubin, “White House Stokes Debt-Ceiling Crisis,” The Washington Post’s “Right Turn” blog, 7/25/2011)

TIME TO CALL THE PRESIDENT’S BLUFF: “‘Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people on this,’ the president said, according to both Cantor and another attendee.” (Sam Stein, “Obama Warns Cantor As Debt Talks Stall: ‘Don’t Call My Bluff’,” The Huffington Post, 7/13/2011)