Awkward!

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cynically repeated his plan to do the impossible in a debate yesterday with his Dem challenger Allison “Secret Ballot” Grimes.  He wants to destroy Obamacare “root and branch,” but keep it in Kentucky!  Um, you can’t do that.  He said he wants to keep the “website,” but Kynect isn’t just some website, it is the state version of Obamacare and would automatically cease to exist if Obamacare were repealed.  If he recognizes that Kynect is good for the people of his state, why would he want to deny health care to people in other states?

 

 

Debt Ceiling Done

The Senate passed the debt ceiling bill, 55-43.

The procedural vote to move the bill forward took an hour as they were having trouble getting to 60.  Eventually, 12 Republicans joined with all 55 Dems, so that there were 67 votes to end the filibuster.  Despite the primary challenges they face, both Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas were among the 12..

So Here’s the Deal

This is the final deal Reid and McConnell negotiated:

The government will be funded until January 15.  The debt ceiling is raised until February 7.

There will be income verification for those getting subsidies under Obamacare.

There will be yet another committee appointed to negotiate a budget for the rest of the fiscal year that ends September 30, 2014.  It must report back by December 13.  Good luck with that.

Treasury is allowed to use “extraordinary measures” to delay hitting the new debt ceiling.  They’ve been using such measures this time around since May, when they technically ran out of money.

Agency heads don’t have flexibility to move money around to deal with the sequester.

The Senate will vote first.  Boehner has indicated he will bring it to the floor of the House even if it’s not supported by a majority of the GOP majority.  We should be able to get both houses to vote and the Prez to sign by midnight.

Are We (Almost) There Yet? — Update

President Obama was supposed to meet with Reid, McConnell, Pelosi, and Boehner at the White House at noon.  That meeting has been postponed, so Senate negotiations can continue.  It’s not a bad sign, talks have not collapsed.

Reid says he’s “very optimistic” on a deal this week to re-open the government and raise the debt ceiling.  If Reid is happy with the deal, I’ll probably be happy with the deal.

McConnell Update

Devout Catholic Sean Hannity played part of the McConnell secret strategy session tape, but not the part where they laughed at St. Francis and “Brother Donkey, Sister Bird.”

I’m sure Hannity knew that some of his Catholic viewers would say, hey, they’re not laughing at Ashley Judd, they’re laughing at me and my religion.

Prepare to Bump Your Head on the Debt Ceiling

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said today:  “The tax issue is finished, over, completed.  That’s behind us.  Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and our future, and that’s our spending addiction.”

Then for good measure McConnell threw in the Greece canard, which is very effective in scaring people, but is irrelevant to our situation.  Greece’s problem is not having its own floating currency and its own central bank.

I agree that we need to cut spending (How about getting out of Afghanistan ASAP?), but you cut spending by negotiating on stuff you haven’t bought yet.  You don’t demand spending cuts by refusing to pay for the things you’ve already bought.  And we need to balance spending cuts by reforming the tax code to get additional revenue.

If the GOP were so concerned about the national debt, they wouldn’t be willing to mess with our credit rating, driving up borrowing costs and throwing away money on interest payments.

 

McConnell Draws Battle Lines

President Obama said that he won’t negotiate on the debt ceiling and that he will be looking for more tax increases (through tax reform).  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has a new op-ed telling the Prez to fuhgeddaboudit and that the fiscal cliff deal “was the last word on taxes.”

McConnell says the debt ceiling won’t get raised without negotiations on spending cuts:

“Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programs that are the real source of the nation’s fiscal imbalance. And the upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion.

“We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt.”

So now we have more of a chasm than a cliff.  Let’s see Biden solve this one.

Fiscal Cliff Deal Passes Senate

The Biden-McConnell deal passed the Senate 89-8.  Both D’s and R’s were among those opposed.

The Democrats who voted against it were Tom Carper of Delaware, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Michael Bennet of Colorado.  The Republicans who voted against it were Mike Lee of Utah, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Marco Rubio  of Florida.

Given that wide, bipartisan margin of victory, it will be tough for the House to turn down the deal.

On the Edge

Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden continue to negotiate, with Biden having taken Harry Reid’s place for the Dems.

They have agreed on raising federal income taxes for individuals who make more than $400,000 and families who make more than $450,000.  They have agreed on a permanent fix to the alternative minimum tax, which has been getting annual fixes to keep it from hitting middle class families.

It looks as if the estate tax will rise to 40% from 35% for estates worth $5 million or more.

Unemployment benefits will be extended for a year for about two million Americans who otherwise would lose them starting tomorrow.  The Medicare “doc fix” will be extended for a year, so that doctors accepting Medicare patients don’t see their payments reduced.

They are still negotiating about turning off the sequester to avoid the automatic spending cuts that will begin tomorrow.

It’s Falling Apart

From “‘Major setback’ in fiscal cliff talks,” Manu Raju and John Bresnahan, Politico:

“Negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have suffered a ‘major setback’ after Republicans demanded the inclusion of a new method for calculating entitlement benefits as part of the fiscal cliffpackage, according to Democratic sources.

“The provision, known as ‘chained CPI,’ is opposed by many progressives because it would result in lower payments for Social Security beneficiaries.

“Democrats are objecting to including this as part of the current negotiations on a scaled-down fiscal cliff deal. They say they’ve already given ground on other issues, including raising the threshold for new taxes to around $400,000 annually, as well as showing flexibility on estate taxes, sources said.

“But Republicans are insisting on the ‘chained CPI’ provision in exchange for raising taxes.

“If no deal is reached — and that’s where things stand at the moment — Reid will push a proposal to raise taxes for those families making over $250,000 in income, though Republicans say that stands little chance of passing both chambers before New Year’s Day. With no deal, about $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts would take effect in 2013, a double-dose of austerity that could send the economy back into recession.”

The stock market won’t be happy, and when the stock market ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.