CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
July 26, 2011 – 10:43 p.m.
Similar Deficit Plans Remain Divided by Politics as CBO Throws House Proposal Off Track
By Joseph J. Schatz, CQ Staff
Competing House and Senate debt limit plans share a common ancestry and many similar elements — even overlapping legislative language.
But the two chambers remained far apart politically and philosophically Tuesday and continued to disagree on some fundamental issues, such as how long an increase in the debt ceiling should last.
The chasm widened further when House leaders called off a vote on their favored plan, while Senate Democrats opted to bide their time and work behind the scenes on their proposal. House Republicans had hoped a show of support for their measure, to increase the debt limit in two stages and tie the second boost to broad spending cuts, would win them leverage in negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House.
But an unfavorable score from the Congressional Budget Office — amid heavy fire from party conservatives and outside interest groups — forced Republicans to pull their bill (
Even if House Speaker
Democrats and President Obama have said plainly that the House plan is a non-starter because it ties future requests for borrowing authority to another round of major, and difficult-to-enact, spending cuts.
They say Boehner’s plan would land lawmakers right back in the kind of bitter stalemate they have been in for weeks.
Indeed, the reality is that neither Boehner’s plan nor the alternative put forward by Senate Majority Leader
As a result, Reid is keeping his options open as he waits to see whether the Speaker’s plan passes the House. Senate leaders in both parties have generally been more willing to end the debt ceiling debate without the far-reaching spending cuts demanded by House conservatives.
A key question, however, is whether lawmakers can modify the Boehner or Reid plan to ensure Senate support without dimming its chances in the House.
Indeed, it remained unclear whether Boehner could pass his own plan without Democratic support or whether he would come under pressure to pass a backup that angers a large portion of his conference.
In an effort to counter criticism from conservatives, senior GOP lawmakers warned members that a failure to pass Boehner’s legislation would cede ground to Senate leaders and President Obama.
Their job became more difficult Tuesday evening, when — in an embarrassment for House GOP leaders — the Congressional Budget Office scored the Boehner bill as reducing the deficit by $850 billion over ten years against its most recent baseline, far less than the $1.2 trillion cut initially promised by the Speaker.
Similar Deficit Plans Remain Divided by Politics as CBO Throws House Proposal Off Track
A Lot Alike
Despite the rhetoric about the two plans, they do share similarities.
“The commonalities are very apparent,” Senate Minority Whip
“The objective here is to try to keep working together,” Kyl added.
Boehner said earlier this week that his plan — which Reid called “dead on arrival” in the Senate — would link an initial debt limit increase totaling about $900 billion to enactment of $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending cuts. It would condition a later, $1.6 trillion debt limit increase on enactment of the joint committee’s budget-cutting recommendations.
But after the CBO scoring of Boehner’s measure, House staff were working to modify the bill so that it meets the Speaker’s demand of the past several months — that the size of the debt limit increase be matched or exceeded by spending cuts.
Democrats jeered as Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email that “this is what can happen when you have an actual plan and submit it for independent review — which the Democrats who run Washington have refused to do.”
Reid Weighs Options
The Reid plan — which Senate and House Republicans dislike — would make $1.2 trillion in cuts while immediately raising the debt limit by $2.4 trillion, a move designed to satisfy the government’s borrowing needs though 2012.
The Reid plan would also create a deficit-cutting panel, but none of the debt ceiling increase would be contingent on spending cuts. Kyl said congressional leaders are discussing whether some type of trigger could be added to Reid’s approach to ensure action on future deficit reduction.
“We’ll probably have to go through another couple of rounds” of votes and packages, said Senate Budget Committee Chairman
In particular, he would like to see a trigger added to the ultimate plan, so that if the joint committee deadlocked, a group of lawmakers could force action on the Senate floor — a mechanism envisioned in the gang’s plan.
“I think it would be very beneficial to have something like, if the committee, the special committee of Congress, does not come to an agreement, that the G6 proposal goes forward,” Conrad said. “We’re having discussions with people. That would put real teeth in.”
Similar Deficit Plans Remain Divided by Politics as CBO Throws House Proposal Off Track
Reid appeared lukewarm to the idea Tuesday.
And if Boehner’s plan goes down to defeat in the House, or fails to make it to a vote, then Reid may have little incentive to compromise.
A Statement of Administration Policy, issued by the White House on Tuesday, said that if the Boehner bill cleared the House and the Senate, “the President’s senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill” — wording that House Republicans said suggested wiggle room.
House Republican Concerns
Senior House Republicans worry that if they don’t rally around the Boehner plan, they’ll be left with a backup first proposed by Senate Republicans, or the Reid plan, or some combination thereof, as the only way to avoid a default.
The Senate GOP proposal, first floated by Minority Leader
Rep.
“That would be the motivation,” to support the plan, Kingston said. He added that lawmakers at this point must think strategically about “what will happen next” legislatively.
Senate Democratic aides said Reid was unlikely to file cloture on a motion to proceed to the current vehicle for his plan (
Alan K. Ota, Ben Weyl and Sam Goldfarb contributed to this story.