President Barack Obama called congressional leaders back to the White House Wednesday, still chasing his big deficit deal but knowing, too, that with each passing day, the focus is less on policy than the more practical tactics and political muscle needed to avert default next month.
Obama met first with House and Senate Democratic leaders and then Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the two top Republicans in the House, which has been Obama’s great obstacle thus far in getting a resolution to the crisis.
By late Wednesday, close to a third of the 47 Senate Republicans had signed a letter supportive of a fragile bipartisan plan that combines new revenues and major spending cuts akin to what Obama wants. But the House GOP showed no sign of relenting, having come off a tough, almost party line 234-190 victory Tuesday on the same debt-and-tax question.
The adopted measure — the Cut, Cap and Balance bill — is remarkable for its uncompromising stance at this late date and would require far deeper cuts than Obama can accept as well as a constitutional amendment to make it harder to raise taxes in the future. Passage was quickly followed by a GOP campaign fundraising appeal titled “Standing Firm.” And as if sensing weakness, House Republicans sought to capitalize on errant remarks by the White House suggesting the president might now accept a short-term extension.
“They are going to torch the House,” said one veteran Democratic strategist, predicting a steady escalation of political heat on Republicans in the remaining days before the Aug. 2 deadline. But no such strategy can work without first getting a debt bill out of the Senate, and here Obama appears conflicted between the practical task at hand — and his reluctance to give up quite yet on the chance to shoot for a larger deficit deal.
Whetting his appetite is a $3.7 trillion 10-year package crafted by the Senate’s fabled Gang of Six— three Democrats and three Republicans, many of whom have close ties to the House, including Boehner.
Trying to build momentum, proponents were circulating a letter from senators as a show of support. And going into Wednesday evening, at least 33 members had signed on, including 15 Republicans. They were said to include past committee chairmen such as Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran and Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi as well as the third-ranking Republican in the Senate GOP leadership, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander.
The irony of the situation is that for months, Obama and the White House did little to encourage the Gang of Six endeavor, but now it is almost a second wind for the president, who tried and failed to pull together an estimated $4 trillion deal with Boehner as his partner.
The full details of the $3.7 trillion plan are still sketchy but the two largest savings components are about $1.4 trillion from discretionary appropriations and close to $740 billion from government entitlement and benefit programs. On the tax side, the package calls for major reforms to broaden the base and lower rates while also doing away with the alternative minimum tax. But the end product would still be about $1.2 trillion above the revenue baseline used by the presidential debt commission last December.
In fact, the estimated 10-year revenues are higher than what Obama had proposed in his own budget and dealing with Boehner. And the fact that so many Republican senators are willing to consider this option makes for a striking contrast with the House GOP.
“This is a plan that can unite Republicans, Democrats and independents,” reads the draft letter being circulated Wednesday. “It is out strong belief that this plan cannot only serve as a template for addressing this crisis, but would allow the Congress to work and reignite our troubled economy.”
The letter is addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The two have been working together on their own fallback plan to get past the Aug. 2 deadline.
Elements of the $3.7 trillion plan may yet be added to win over support, but it is a mixed blessing for the leaders at this stage.
On one hand, the signatories of the letter represent a solid bipartisan core — with which Reid and McConnell can work — to help control the Senate debate and get a bill over to the House. On the other hand, even the authors admit there is not sufficient time left to really act on the $3.7 trillion plan, and senators are impatient as well with Obama and the White House for not realizing as much themselves.
“Let’s be honest about this,” Majority Whip Dick Durbin said after returning from the White House Wednesday. “It is not written, it is not scored. We are now down to 12 days. It is not practical and it doesn’t add up to think that we could write it, score it, bring it to the Senate, pass it, send it to the House, entertain a conference committee and do all this by Aug. 2?”
“Right now, there are multiple trains heading towards the station,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. “And some of them may continue up to the last moment, because we need to be sure that that fail-safe option is there — even as we pursue, aggressively, the possibility of doing something bigger.”
“There is no reason why we cannot come together now and get something significant done. …We would not support a short-term extension absent an agreement to a larger deal. That’s not acceptable,” Carney said, but then added, “obviously, if both sides agree to something significant, we will support the measures needed to finalize the details of that.”
That last sentence touched off a small storm because of Obama’s past warnings that he would veto any short-term extension. Republicans pounced, feeding speculation of an extension into the fall to get past the crisis. But Democrats returning from the White House insisted there had been no change in the president’s posture, and the same message was expected to be conveyed to the GOP leaders in their meeting.
Read More Stories from POLITICOsource : http://news.yahoo.com/obama-looks-debt-deal-endgame-013300776.html;_ylt=AiRtXVzglY0fwUXTzOrVntKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTM5NzNsMDdkBHBrZwM0OWNhYmMxMi0wZTdmLTM4MTctYjRkNC02YzI4OWE0MjJjYWMEcG9zAzIEc2VjA01lZGlhVG9wU3RvcnkEdmVyA2FiODIwYmYwLWIzYTQtMTFlMC05ZmZiLTU2ZTVhOGViNDE0NA--;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3
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