Public attention is focused on the debt ceiling debate. But the risk to the economy is not that the United States will default on its payments to domestic and foreign bondholders, but that America’s debt will lose its AAA rating.
The Senate has not yet passed a bill that would cut spending. On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that he would oppose Boehner’s Budget Control Act if it reached the Senate.
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Forty-nine senators drawn from both sides of the aisle were given a five-page plan Tuesday that described the major “starting concepts” agreed to by the Gang of Six for fixing the federal budget. Many of the attending senators emerged from the briefing by the plan’s authors praising the proposal as “responsible,” “bipartisan” and “achievable.”
The truth is, the plan is another collection of hollow promises, vague commitments and high-sounding declarations.
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Anyone can make specious claims about the federal budget. Witness, for example, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s assertion that our federal government is not going broke, and his party’s broader argument that “Medicare as we know it” is somehow sustainable with just a few tweaks.
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By:
Lee Bowman
05/09/11 4:00 AM
As sure as tornadoes erupt and waters rise, there’s another certainty for this disaster-plagued spring of 2011: It’s going to cost the U.S. government a lot of money, likely much more than Congress has budgeted so far.
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By:
Martin Schram
04/20/11 9:30 PM
The United States debt will reach $14.3 trillion — the maximum amount of debt it is permitted to accrue —on May 16. Unless this limit is once again raised, as it has been about 100 times in the nation’s history, the U.S. will be unable to legally borrow more money and could find itself in default on its debt obligations for the first time in history.
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What if House Speaker John Boehner made this announcement:“The House will remain in session until further notice. Members are requested to forego all recesses and weekday travel to and from their districts until a 2012 federal budget is signed into law with a comprehensive plan to balance expenditures and revenue, reform safety-net entitlement programs, set a schedule to eliminate the national debt and insure the military security of the United States.”
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Here's the analysis of the Continuing Resolution deal by the Republican Study Committee, which is the largest House caucus and represents the mainstream conservative voice of the GOP:
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House Speaker John Boehner is gathering his troops at 11:30 this morning for a closed-door meeting to discuss the Continuing Resolution deal with President Obama and congressional Democrats that appears to be in some jeopardy as a result of questions about whether it actually reduces federal spending.
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Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huekskamp will vote against the Obama-Boehner Continuing Resolution deal on 2011 spending. In a lengthy statement released late yesterday, Huelskamp, who also voted against the previous CR, explained why he will again go against the House GOP leadership:
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President Barack Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan are the only worthy and appropriate debaters on the future direction of the federal budget. Obama is the Democratic president; Ryan has been designated by Republicans as the architect of their budget and its plan for restraining the growth of government.
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