Government Shutdown Ends, Debt Ceiling Raised ... and Crisis Is Over (Until Next Time)

SEE HOW YOUR CONGRESSPERSON VOTED 

From the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives

President Obama early Thursday signed a short-term bill ending the partial government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling, capping one of the most bitter and brutal political fights in recent memory.

The bill cleared the House late Wednesday on a 285-144 vote, lifted over the finish line by a large chunk of Democrats. All House Democrats voted in favor of the bill and 87 Republicans did as well. 144 Republicans voted against it.

Via: Fox News

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Fox’s Gretchen Carlson Grills Two Congressmen: ‘Isn’t This What Americans Hate About You Guys?’

On Fox this afternoon, Gretchen Carlson grilled two congressmen over whether the proposal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling will pass through the House of Representatives. After they admitted that this whole ordeal could’ve been dealt with earlier in the month, Carlson asked whether this is indicative of what Americans “hate” about members of Congress.

When asked whether the bill will pass the House, both Reps. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Smith (D-WA) answered in the affirmative. The latter, however, added that “The shame of it is, this is something we could have done back in the beginning of October.”

That prompted Carlson to ask her guests: “Isn’t this what Americans hate, quite frankly, about you guys, members of Congress? That this is something that could have been done long ago and here we are again?”

“It’s difficult,” Republican Nunes replied. “I understand why the American people are upset, but the bottom line is in order to make cuts it’s hard for members to pass that vote. I think Republicans made a mistake by thinking that Obamacare was going to be so unpopular that in shutting down the government we would gain something.”

Democratic Rep. Smith stepped in, adding that “There is no question that the Affordable Care Act could be improved. But the debate, unfortunately, wasn’t about how to improve it, it was about how to kill it.” He continued on to suggest the same pattern exists in the debate over the federal deficit. “The debate is that the Republicans continue to insist no new revenue, period,” he asserted. period. “And that is the problem.”

“This is what Americans get so frustrated with,” Carlson interjected. “Again, we have this kicking the can down the road mentality. You have the time to create a budget committee? Really? Really? Because didn’t we just do this with Simpson-Bowles two years ago?”

When Smith pointed out that the country itself is divided on budgetary questions, Carlson shot back: “The President of the United States looked at that Simpson-Bowles report and he punted. He punted!”

“To be fair here,” Nunes clarified, “so that you understand what’s happening, this is not a bipartisan commission. This is following the Constitution and having the budget committees meet in a conference as they are supposed to.”

“I get it all,” Carlson fired back, “but the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in how many years?”

“They passed one this year, as a matter of fact,” Smith declared.

Watch the segment below, via Fox:

Via: Mediaite.com

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U.S. Stocks Rally as Senate Nears Deal on Debt Ceiling

U.S. stocks rallied, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) toward a record, as the Senate crafted a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling before tomorrow’s deadline.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent to 1,721.47 at 4 p.m. in New York. The benchmark gauge slid 0.7 percent yesterday after climbing 3.3 percent over the previous four days.

“Investors are relieved that it looks like we’re not going to go over the cliff,” Ben Hart, a research analyst at Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Haverford Trust Co., which oversees about $6 billion, said by phone. “It takes the worst case scenario off the table.”

The S&P 500 dropped 4.1 percent from its all-time high of 1,725.52 reached Sept. 18 as Congress struggled to reach agreement on a federal budget, forcing the first partial government shutdown in 17 years. The gauge has recovered 4 percent of the decline as optimism grew that a deal would be reached, and is within about four points of its record. The S&P 500 is up 21 percent for the year.

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate reached an agreement to end the fiscal impasse and to increase U.S. borrowing authority. The Senate and House plan to vote on it later today, and the White House press secretary said President Barack Obama supports the deal.

The framework negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would fund the government through Jan. 15, 2014, and suspend the debt limit until Feb. 7, setting up another round of confrontations.

Via: Bloomfield

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[VIDEO] McConnell-Reid Deal Includes $3 Billion Earmark for Kentucky Project

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U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,

A proposal to end the government shutdown and avoid default orchestrated by Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Harry Reid includes a nearly $3 billion earmark for a Kentucky project.

Language in a draft of the McConnell-Reid deal (see page 13, section 123) provided to WFPL News shows a provision that increases funding for the massive Olmsted Dam Lock in Paducah, Ky., from $775 million to nearly $2.9 billion.

The dam is considered an important project for the state and region in regards to water traffic along the Ohio River.

As The Courier-Journal's James Bruggers reported in 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said they needed about $2.1 billion for the locks due to "stop and go funding."

Asked about the additional funding in the proposal, McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer directed all questions to lawmakers who worked on the bill directly.

"Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Lamar) Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee, worked on the issue and can help you," he says.

Since 2009, McConnell has been an outspoken supporter of the project, and has been working on getting its funding for some time.

Watch:

Still, conservative critics of the proposal argue it is nothing more than a "kickback" for McConnell in an age where Tea Parties have eschewed earmarks.

Via: WFPL News

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Senate Debt Deal Weakens Congress on Debt Ceiling

Capitol Hill talk regarding the Senate deal apparently includes a provision that would take away the Congress’ power to increase the debt ceiling. According to Politico, it looks like the buzz appears to be true.:

The plan includes a proposal offered by McConnell in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that allows Congress to disapprove of the debt ceiling increase, which means lawmakers will formally vote on whether to reject a debt ceiling increase until Feb. 7. Obama can veto that legislation if it passes. If Congress fails as expected to gather a two-thirds majority to override the veto, the debt ceiling would be raised.

National Journal reported last week:

Whether it's four weeks from now or in one year, there'd be even less reason to put faith in a last-minute deal next time the U.S. is up against the debt limit.

There's only one foolproof way to avoid a future crisis: Fundamentally change the way the debt ceiling works.

This approach isn't all that radical. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., proposed a reform in January that would change the debt-ceiling mechanism so that Congress would vote to disapprove of an increase, as opposed to approving one. Such a change would limit debt-ceiling negotiations to a veto-proof majority, while still leaving Congress with some power.

The most interesting part of this proposal? It was originally floated in 2011 by Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell. The potential for a bipartisan deal here that fixes the debt-limit problem is real. Sen. Boxer continues to advocate for the change. Right now though, Harry Reid's office says the senator is not considering any disapproval mechanism. But that could change as this process moves on.

Via: Breitbart

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BREAKING: It’s Over …

Via: Weasel Zippers

Obamatude Ahead

It will be foolish to rush into a debt ceiling deal that fails to curb spending.

Polls show the nation growing impatient. The public wants Washington politicians to get a deal done now to raise the debt ceiling and open the government. Rushing is a mistake. The urgency of the debt ceiling is exaggerated, while the drastic consequences of a deal that fails to curb spending are being ignored.

Here are three reasons not to rush a settlement:

1. The U.S. will not default on its debt this week or anytime soon.

On October 7, Moody’s rating agency circulated a memo on Capitol Hill explaining that “there is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.” First of all, “there are no interest payments until the end of the month…. Thus, a Treasury based default is not technically possible until that date.”

What’s more, “the government is very likely to prioritize interest payments,” meaning servicing the debt before paying other bills.

Backing up Moody’s analysis, Fitch rating service called default “a low risk.”

Yet Rep. Peter T. King, Republican of New York, said “We’re now backed into a corner. We have to do this by Thursday. We have to make it work, but it’s not going to be perfect.” 

No one expects perfection in politics, but Republicans should be fighting to keep the “savings” they gained in 2011, in exchange for agreeing to the largest debt ceiling hike in history.

Via: The Spectator

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Government default? It’s already happened, twice

Although President Barack Obama and the establishment media routinely describe a potential federal default as “unprecedented,” the United States government has flaked on its debt service several times, and one expert says the current default has already begun.

The historical default precedents should be of limited comfort to Obama, however. One of the deadbeat presidents was the commander in chief during a disastrous war that saw Washington, D.C. occupied and the White House burned to the ground. The other was Jimmy Carter.

According to Connie Cass of The Associated Press, the U.S. government “briefly stiffed some of its creditors on at least two occasions.” The first default took place in November 1814, during the administration of James Madison, America’s tiniest chief executive. Just a few months after the British conquest of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812, the Treasury was unable to move enough precious metal to service its debt, and missed interest payments on bonds. Boston bondholders, according to Wayne State College history professor Don Hickey, were paid off in short-term interest-bearing treasury notes or more bonds. These debt service troubles, and the war, were resolved within a few months.

A more recent default came in 1979 under President Carter, who, until Obama, held the record for presiding over the country’s longest post-World War II period of economic stagnation. Cass attributes the ’79 default to “a back-office glitch that ended up costing taxpayers billions of dollars.” She writes, “The Treasury Department blamed the mishap on a crush of paperwork partly caused by lawmakers who — this will sound familiar — bickered too long before raising the nation’s debt limit.”

The Carter default is potentially more relevant because it occurred under the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War change to the Constitution that declared the “validity of the public debt….shall not be questioned.”

These precedents for an event the president describes as unexampled in U.S. history are unlikely to get much attention from media that have been eager to ape the administration’s terror-mongering over the debt ceiling increase.  Executive branch efforts to whip up hysteria have gotten wide distribution and arguably caused minorfinancial panic.

Via: Daily Caller

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5 THINGS LOST, 5 THINGS WON BY GOP IN BUDGET/DEBT FIGHT

The House has yet to vote on Republican leaders' proposed bill for ending the government shutdown and the debt ceiling fight. The GOP, having entered aiming to defund Obamacare and reach some agreement on major budget changes, now merely hopes that the Democrat-controlled Senate and the White House will accept the Vitter amendment to remove Obamacare subsidies from Congress, its staff, and political appointees.

The polls have been bad for both parties, and the president as well. But Republicans are receiving more of the blame. Yet there are a few gains the GOP can claim, even while taking some losses. Here are the bad and good:

Via: Breitbart

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Cruz Blasts Senate Deal for Caving on ObamaCare: Once Again Washington Establishment Refuses to Listen to the American People

Sen. Ted Cruz after the Senate reached a tentative budget deal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling while barely touching ObamaCare: "Unfortunately, once again it appears the Washington Sen. Ted Cruz after the Senate reached a tentative budget deal that would end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling while barely touching ObamaCare: "Unfortunately, once again it appears the Washington establishment is refusing to listen to the American people. The deal that has been cut provides no relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting because of ObamaCare. ...  The U.S. Senate has stayed with the traditional approach of the Washington establishment of maintaining the status quo."

Via: Fox News
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[VIDEO] The Clock Is Ticking ... Time to End This Comedy of Political Errors

The Debt Denouement
It's time to wrap up this comedy of political errors.
WALL STREET JOURNAL - The Beltway budget melodrama rolls on to its predictable and dreary end, with both sides now split over increasingly small differences. None of this is worth a partial government shutdown, much less the risk of a debt default, and both sides are looking like losers. Let's get it over with.

As we went to press Tuesday night, Republican leaders in the House had abandoned a plan to pass a debt-increase bill that was nearly identical to the one that Senate leaders agreed to on Monday. The main differences were funding the government only through December 15, rather than January 15 in the Senate bill, and a provision to require Members of Congress and their staff to live by ObamaCare's subsidies.

None of that was enough to please the small band of 20 or so House conservatives who have been all but running the House since this fiasco began. They refused to support House Speaker John Boehner and even Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. Another 30 or so Members were tired of getting kicked around by Heritage Action and Senator Ted Cruz and want the whole thing settled. With Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi keeping her troops in line for a no vote, GOP leaders pulled the bill from the floor.

The conservatives thus undermined whatever small leverage the House GOP had left. Without a united majority of 218 votes, Republicans might as well hand the Speaker's gavel to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Senate leaders announced immediately that they would resume negotiating to finish a deal that they would bring to the floor as early as Wednesday.

Via: Fox News
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Kick Them Out: Pew Finds Voters Want Incumbents Gone

Nearly four in 10 voters are so disillusioned with Congress that they want their own representatives kicked out of office.

A new survey from Pew Research Center finds that 38 percent of voters don't want their senators and representatives re-elected. 

Anti-incumbent sentiment is nothing new, but voters traditionally have been more indulgent of their own elected officials. In 2010, for instance, 29 percent of voters were willing to give their representatives the boot.

Pew found Americans overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the way the fiscal battle in Washington has played out. Looking to 2014, 74 percent of Americans want to see most incumbents defeated in the midterm elections.

But dissatisfaction with incumbents may not translate into gains for the opposing party. In many states, the number of House seats in "swing districts," that are not solidly in the hands of either party, has declined in recent years due to gerrymandering.

Pew's survey, released Wednesday, pointed out that 90 percent of House members were re-elected in their last race and only one senator — Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown — was beaten in the General E. election and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar lost in a primary.

Of 435 House members, 391 sought re-election in 2012 and only 40 lost, a phenomenon referred to as congressional stagnation. That, Pew said, is making red districts getting redder and blue districts bluer.

Via: Newsmax

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Senate nears deal, House will vote first

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will soon announce an agreement to reopen the government and avert default on U.S. debt, according to several sources familiar with the talks.

The House plans to move on the Senate’s bill first, sources say, a move that would clear a path to end the first government shutdown in 17 years and avoid the first potential economy-shaking default on U.S. debt. It remains unclear when a final vote would occur in the Senate.

If the House passes the bill first and sends it to the upper chamber, it would eliminate some burdensome procedural hurdles in the Senate and require just one procedural roll call with a 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill toward final passage in the Senate.

(PHOTOS: Debt ceiling fight: 20 great quotes)

It could be an extraordinarily risky play for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), because it’s far from clear any Senate proposal would garner the majority of the House Republican Conference. House Republicans have clung to the so-called Hastert Rule, a mantra that the House speaker should not try to pass a bill that doesn’t have the support of the “majority of the majority.” In this case, that would mean 117 Republicans must support the bill to avoid getting crosswise with the rule. Top GOP sources say it’s unlikely they will reach that level of support.

But the fact that House Republicans are now planning to go that route marks a stunning reversal for the speaker who had backed his conservative wing’s drive to gut Obamacare as part of the government shutdown fight, now in its third week.

Via: Politico

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George Will: ‘Default is a choice’

On Tuesday’s “Special Report,” Washington Post columnist George Will said the prospect of a government default has been exaggerated, because there is more than enough revenue to cover U.S. debt payments.

Will’s comments came during discussion of a potential government default, which has gotten more attention as the U.S. federal government approaches the so-called debt ceiling on Wednesday night.

“The last time we faced cataclysm over this was when Standard & Poor’s lowered our credit rating, people said disaster,” Will said. “No, the cost of borrowing actually went down 40 percent. I don’t think the markets are as irrational as some of the people on Wall Street say. I repeat what I have said here before: Default is a choice — a choice in the sense that we have 10 times more revenue coming in than is needed to service our debt. We can continue to service our debt by not paying certain other vendors and certain other programs. We will only default if it is a choice. And, furthermore, the 14th Amendment empowering the president not at all, but the Congress entirely, says it is a constitutional requirement to pay, under the full faith and credit of the United States, our bonded debt.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Obama Doesn't Take Any Blame for Government Mess ...

President Barack Obama sat down for a rare interview with a local New York City television reporter on Tuesday. As the financial markets grow more skittish with a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit not yet agreed to, Obama urged calm. When pressed, Obama refused to concede that he deserves any blame for discord in Washington D.C. 

WABC reporter Diana Williams sat down with Obama for 8 minutes on Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview about the standoff in Washington. She previewed portions of that interview for WABC’s 4 p.m. broadcast.

“The real good news is that Democrats and Republicans are very close to agreement in the Senate,” Obama said. “And what we’ve seen is a recognition on a part of a number of Senate Republicans that this whole strategy that they pursued of trying to extract ransom for keeping the government open was a bad strategy.”

“Why have you not been able to create a bipartisan atmosphere here?” Williams asked. “And, do you take any of the blame yourself for that?”

“I think if you look at my track record over the last four years, I have consistently sought comprise,” Obama replied. “Sometimes to the point where Democrats have been mad at me, but I didn’t care because I did what I thought was best for the country.”

Williams said the lack of concern among legislators for what happens in a default scenario led her to believe that there is still optimism that a deal will be struck which will avert crisis.

Finally, Williams asked Obama about the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act. “My suspicion is what’s going to happen is when it’s working and everybody is really happy with it, the Republicans will stop calling it Obamacare,” he said.

Watch the clip below via WABC:

Via: Mediate.com

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Wall Street up on Washington deal optimism

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened higher on Wednesday on optimism that U.S. politicians would strike a last-minute deal to prevent the country from defaulting on its debt, an event that could roil markets and economies worldwide.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 87.98 points, or 0.58 percent, to 15,255.99, the S&P 500 <.spx> gained 10.16 points, or 0.6 percent, to 1,708.22 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> added 23.882 points, or 0.63 percent, to 3,817.892.

Despite the upbeat sentiment in the equities market, yields on U.S. Treasury securities due this month surged and the cost of borrowing against Treasuries in the repurchase agreement market rose as investors fretted about gridlock in Washington.

Via: Yahoo.com

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Playing the Racism Card in the Shutdown

The government shutdown has brought out the worst in our political class but the same is true of pundits. It’s bad enough when politicians call each other terrorists and hostage takers or, as Barbara Boxer did yesterday, to compare them to those who commit domestic abuse. We know that’s what Democrats have always thought of Republicans and it takes very little provocation to get them up on their high horses seeking to turn a political disagreement, however bitter it might be, into one in which the other side is depicted as pure scum rather than merely wrong. But the willingness of liberals to speak as if all those who disagree with Barack Obama are, almost by definition, racists, is about as low as it gets.

The attempt to paint the Tea Party as a warmed over version of the Ku Klux Klan has been a staple of liberal commentary for over three years. The fact that race has played virtually no part in the argument about the stimulus, ObamaCare and the current shutdown/debt ceiling crisis doesn’t deter the left from branding its foes as motivated by prejudice rather than just by different views about which decent people can disagree. That’s the conceit of much of Roger Simon’s column in Politico yesterday. Jonah Goldberg rightly called it “fairly trollish” and used it as an example of how formerly respected reporters turned columnists expose the liberal bias of much of the mainstream press in an excellent post on National Review’s The Corner blog. I made a similar pointin a piece about a related topic on Sunday. But Simon’s piece exposes a different angle of the bias issue that I’d like to explore further.

The headline of his article was “Government shutdown unleashes racism” and it was accompanied by a photo of Tea Party demonstrator waving a Confederate flag in front of the White House at a demonstration this past weekend. But the headline promised more than Simon could deliver as the only points presented in the piece that backed up the accusation lodged in the headline was the flag and a comment made on radio by “Joe the Plumber,” the conservative pseudo celebrity of the 2008 campaign who said in his blog that America needed a “white Republican president” to replace Barack Obama. Other than these two items, Simon’s piece was just the standard denunciation of the Republican stand on the shutdown and it was that theme rather than racism riff that was its substance.

Via: Commentary

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