Debt-ceiling Fight Rages On

Speaker Boehner wasn’t able to get enough Republican votes in the House to pass his plan after all; apparently it will now be amended to require that Congress send a balanced-budget constitutional amendment to the states before a debt-ceiling increase is triggered (as would have been required by the failed Cut, Cap, and Balance Act), which is a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. 

Debt-ceiling Fight Over?

Last Friday, Speaker of the House John Boehner finally walked out on the unproductive talks with President Obama; he cut Obama out of the loop and went to negotiate directly with Democrats in the Senate, which arguably makes a lot more sense.

By yesterday, Boehner had already come up with a new plan, which he believes can pass both the Republican House and the Democratic Senate. 

Republican Leaders Make Two Great Points

Speaker of the House John Boehner at a press conference today:

. . . the fact is that House Republicans have a plan. We passed our budget back in the spring, outlined our priorities. Where is the president’s plan? When’s he going to lay his cards on the table?

Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell today on the floor of the Senate: 

Starting to Paddle Back from the Cliff

Republican House speaker John Boehner and Democrat Senate majority leader Harry Reid appear to have reached a final deal on this year’s budget.

If you’re just joining us, the Democrats didn’t pass a budget last year for this fiscal year (October 2010 to September 2011), possibly because they could already see the rising tide of public sentiment against government spending and thought passing any kind of Democrat budget would only hurt them even further in last November’s elections.