Raise the Roof (or the Ceiling)

Negotiations to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks were over almost as quickly as they began. Late Thursday night, we started to hear that Congressional Republicans were going to meet with the White House to discuss possible negotiations. But early Saturday morning, House Republicans left their meeting with no deals and no plans for the coming days.

With the threat of the nation’s default hanging over their heads, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) met to negotiate. On Saturday, Senator Reid introduced a bill that would raise the debt ceiling to 1.1 trillion which would keep our country from defaulting until after the elections in 2014. Unfortunately, fewer than sixty senators voted to proceed to debate which means that cloture on the motion to proceed was not achieved.

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October Crisis Part 2: Our Debt

At last, like a light in the darkness, we are starting to hear whisperings of the possibility of debt limit negotiations.

Friday, GOP leaders met with President Obama to talk about raising the debt ceiling for six weeks This bill will include a short-term debt limit increase as well as a promise to go to conference, in exchange for a promise from Obama to discuss long-term deficit reduction solutions. Speaker Boehner (R-OH) also hopes the talks will include negotiations to end the government shutdown.

That’s right. There are no current plans to end the government shutdown, merely a promise to raise the debt ceiling for a short six weeks.

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Budget Plans and Debt Limits

Only hours after I published the post about the government shut down, the House passed its budget plan. This came as a surprise for two reasons, the first because I didn’t think the House would ever pass any sort of budget until the last minute, and the second because I honestly did not realize the House did anything on a Friday.

So what exactly did the House pass? It’s a bill that outlining how much the government will spend in the coming fiscal year, but it also includes a provision to defund Obamacare. The bill passed the House 230-189, along party lines. While the bill passed in the House, it is very unlikely that it will pass the Senate unchanged, as the Senate is controlled by Democrats. Most people think that the Senate will pass a similar version of the bill, but include spending for Obamacare, and send it back to the House.

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