CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
July 18, 2011 – 9:26 p.m.
Balanced-Budget Votes to Give Conservatives Their Say in Debt Debate
By Paul M. Krawzak, CQ Staff
Debt limit negotiations will continue behind the scenes this week, but congressional leaders are expected to keep any deal under wraps until after lawmakers have fully debated conservative- favored options.
Both chambers will take up legislation this week that would make deep spending cuts and pave the way for a balanced-budget constitutional amendment, although the specifics of the House and Senate bills are different.
Neither measure is expected to gain enough Democratic votes to pass in the Senate. But voting on the legislation will enable GOP conservatives to voice support for the tough fiscal medicine they demand in exchange for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit.
At the same time, congressional leaders can point to a rejection in the Senate as reason to push for a compromise.
Once the fate of the GOP deficit reduction plans becomes clear later this week, it is likely that Senate Majority Leader
But that will not give leaders much time to move any package across the floors and overcome an almost certain filibuster attempt from Senate budget hawks. The Treasury Department says without a debt limit increase, the nation will default on its financial obligations after Aug. 2.
It is also still possible that a separate deal could be reached as a result of private discussions between Obama, House Speaker
House Republican leaders, under pressure from tea party conservatives, have vowed to oppose any deficit reduction plan that includes a tax increase. They also insist that spending needs to be cut at least as much as the debt limit is raised.
And in a further indication that the White House talks are unlikely to bear fruit, the administration signaled it is looking seriously at the Reid-McConnell proposal.
Asked about the Senate plan Monday, Obama spokesman Jay Carney said congressional leaders were looking for ways to “get significant deficit reduction or at least some deficit reduction” into it. “But that is a fluid process and to predict what might get votes and from where is hard to do when we don’t even know exactly what the measure will be,” he said.
Symbolic Votes
The House is set to vote Tuesday on a package of spending cuts (
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans seek votes on that plan and on a proposal for a balanced-budget amendment this week. The White House has warned that if the cut, cap and balance plan makes it through Congress, President Obama would veto it.
Balanced-Budget Votes to Give Conservatives Their Say in Debt Debate
Once voting has finished in both chambers, the result of Reid and McConnell’s work is expected to take center stage, although those discussions are ongoing and many details are still being worked out.
In its earliest incarnation, the plan offered by McConnell would have provided for legislation effectively allowing Obama to raise the debt limit in three successive steps. In return, the president would have to submit offsetting spending cuts, but Congress would not be required to enact them.
Realizing that a debt limit increase is unlikely to make it through the House without spending reductions, Senate leaders are working on linking more than $1 trillion in spending cuts to the legislation that could be attached in the House or Senate.
Specifically, Senate talks have focused on setting up two-year statutory caps on discretionary spending, set at no more than $1.048 trillion, a figure floated earlier by the White House.
Details remain in flux, and the savings target could rise.
Under the deal (PL 112-8) that averted a government shutdown in April, fiscal 2011 discretionary budget authority totals $1.049 trillion, not including emergency appropriations.
The proposed cap would come in nearly $30 billion higher than the $1.019 trillion cap (
Reid also proposed requiring the creation of a legislative committee that would be charged with coming up with a larger deficit reduction package to move through Congress under an expedited process.
Many House conservatives are certain to oppose any proposal that does not cut enough spending in their view.
Democrats, in turn, are determined that any deficit reduction plan in the $4 trillion range must include a balance of increased tax revenues and spending cuts.
But Sen.
“If that’s what we end up with, that’s what we’ll end up with,” he said. He added that passing a plan with minimal deficit reduction would be a “punt.”
Balanced-Budget Votes to Give Conservatives Their Say in Debt Debate
Joseph J. Schatz, Sam Goldfarb and Niels Lesniewski contributed to this story.