House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to lay Washington’s debt-ceiling debacle squarely at President Obama’s feet in a press conference on Saturday, making public their effort to drag …
debt ceiling
All Eyes on the Senate: Can Two Veterans Deliver a Debt Deal?
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are not chatty men by nature. Notoriously monosyllabic, either man could probably compete for a world record in shortest average phone conversation. But
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South Carolina’s Conservative Bloc Poses a Problem for House GOP Leaders
When Republicans showed up to their pivotal powwow in the Capitol basement on Friday morning, it was no surprise to see the freshmen of the South Carolina delegation arrive together. Of the five GOP members from the Palmetto State, four — Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy, Mick Mulvaney and Tim Scott — are rookie representatives. Since coming to …
House Leaders Tweak Doomed Bill to Stem Conservative Insurrection
House Republican leaders have sweetened Speaker John Boehner’s debt-ceiling plan to make it more palatable to conservative holdouts, and rank-and-file members said the tweaks would likely be enough to give Boehner enough votes to pass his bill later on Friday.
A night after a dramatic rebuke to Boehner’s stewardship of the House, …
Keeping a Safe Distance, Obama Lays Out a Path Forward in Debt Talks
“Tweet,” said the President of the United States, Friday, speaking from the Diplomatic Reception Room. He was renewing his call, first issued in Monday’s primetime address, for Americans to contact their Senators and Congressman …
The Weak Speaker: How a Failed Debt Vote Disarmed the Nation’s Top Republican
House Speaker John Boehner failed to muster enough GOP votes to pass his plan to raise the debt limit on Thursday night, throwing into question the fate of Boehner’s proposal as well as that of his speakership. Republican leaders …
House Delays Vote on GOP Debt Bill
Updated, 10:00 PM
House Republican leaders have delayed a pivotal vote on Speaker John Boehner’s proposal to cut the deficit and raise the federal debt ceiling, suggesting they may still be scrambling for votes after three days of whipping wavering members. Laena Fallon, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said the …
With Debt Talks at the Brink, It’s Business as Usual on Capitol Hill
If it weren’t for the late-night jokes and the prime-time press conferences and the cable networks’ ticking countdown clocks to Debt Armageddon, you wouldn’t have thought the name of a post office was at stake in Congress on Thursday, let alone the full faith and credit of the United States. House Speaker John Boehner was calm and …
Republicans’ Debt Ceiling Charade Is Downright Dangerous
Let us not put too fine a point on it: Thursday’s House vote on Speaker John Boehner’s debt ceiling proposal is a joke. If it passes the House, Harry Reid has said it is dead on arrival in the Senate. If it somehow passes the …
As GOP Debt Plan Faces House Vote, Compromise Brews Behind the Scenes
All eyes will be on the House on Thursday as Speaker John Boehner tries to push through Republicans’ latest proposal to raise the debt ceiling and trim federal deficits. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who’s keeping …
Ron Paul, the Debt Ceiling and the GOP’s Apocalyptic Wing
Ron Paul, who is spending a ton of money in Iowa right now, is expected to finish in the top three at the Ames Straw poll in a couple weeks. There is a solid chance that he beats either Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, or both of them. Though Ames is not predictive of the outcome of the presidential nomination contest, it is a key test of …
Still True Today: Frequently Forgotten Facts of the Debt Debate
If the debt-limit debate had anything to do with reality, every story about it would include a few basic facts. Starting with: President Obama inherited a $1.2 trillion budget deficit. And: Republican leaders supported the tax cuts and wars that (along with the recession, another pre-Obama phenomenon) created that deficit. Also: …
Republican Establishment Tries to Leash the Tea Party
As John Boehner hunts for enough votes to pass his debt-limit proposal, the Washington-New York Republican establishment is coming out in vehement support for his plan. on Tuesday, the Chamber of Commerce announced its backing of the Boehner plan, calling the legislation “critical” and saying that “default is not an option.” (The …