CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
June 27, 2011 – 3:09 p.m.
Demands on Debt Deal From Left and Right
By Brian Friel, CQ Staff
Senate leaders are facing growing pressure to add and subtract proposals in any deficit reduction package to make it more politically palatable for members to vote for an increase in the debt limit.
The leaders are fielding the countervailing requests as Congress has just five weeks until the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government’s borrowing authority and avert potential economic calamity.
Adding to the complexity is the congressional schedule. The House is not in session this week or the week of July 18, and the Senate is out of town next week, leaving both chambers in Washington at the same time for only two weeks before Aug. 2.
Majority Leader
“It will take time, and that is a little bit troublesome,” Minority Whip
The top Senate leaders, along with House Speaker
The tension from within each leader’s ranks shows the challenge they face in drumming up votes for a deficit reduction/debt ceiling increase package.
As of Monday, a dozen conservative Senate Republicans had pledged to oppose a boost in the $14.3 trillion debt limit unless Congress passes a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution that would require a supermajority to approve any future tax increases.
With Senate Democrats largely opposed to such an amendment, its passage appears unlikely. This means McConnell would be able to call on only the 35 remaining Republican senators in his conference to vote for a debt ceiling increase.
Some Republicans also are increasingly critical of the private nature of the spending and debt discussions.
“It will be unacceptable for the White House talks, or any talks, to produce a controversial decision at the eleventh hour and for its passage to then be demanded in a panic,” the Alabama senator said. “Such an approach heightens the risk of failure.”
Another Budget Committee Republican,
Demands on Debt Deal From Left and Right
“How we correct the damage of deficit spending and massive debt needs to be decided in the open and not behind closed doors. Washington’s dealmaking is bankrupting America. That’s not hope and change . . . that’s business as usual,” he said Monday.
Reid Faces Pressure From Democrats
Reid, meanwhile, is facing growing opposition among liberal Democrats, including
“Now is the time to say to the millionaires and the billionaires in this country and to the largest corporations who in many ways have never had it so good that they must participate in deficit reduction,” Sanders said.
But it is unlikely the Republican House would support a package with that level of tax increases, even if it could get through the Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority.
Other Democrats are increasingly voicing concerns about the level of spending cuts likely to be included in any deal.
Reid’s 53 caucus members may be inclined to rally behind Obama on any deal that is struck, but liberal defections could force Reid to give more ground to McConnell’s demands.
Moderate Democrats have their own concerns. They also are pressing for spending cuts that liberals may find tough to swallow. Budget Chairman
Conrad is a member of the “Gang of Six,” a bipartisan group of senators preparing a deficit reduction proposal building on the recommendations of Obama’s fiscal commission for $4 trillion in deficit reduction. Leaders have largely ignored the Senate group, instead giving credence to negotiations over the last two months that had been led by Biden, with representatives appointed by Reid, McConnell, Boehner and House Minority Leader
The Gang of Six’s work could influence the negotiations Senate and House leaders and Obama are now engaged in, but its members appear divided over whether they should release the details of their work to help guide the effort.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to share it at this point, but it could form — could, capital ‘C’ — could form the basis for an agreement,” Conrad said June 23. The group was close to reaching an agreement when Oklahoma Republican
“I would be comfortable laying it out there,” Conrad said.
But
Demands on Debt Deal From Left and Right
“I don’t know that we will necessarily be a part of the debt ceiling situation,” Crapo said June 23. “I’ve always said that once the Congress resolves the debt ceiling battle, there will still be a debt crisis in this country, and we will still need to have the much more comprehensive solutions like the Gang of Six is working on.”
Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this story.