As a vote on the recently reached debt compromise looms, party leaders are still trying to sell their plan to fellow lawmakers. President Obama spoke Sunday evening, saying in essence that while the bill doesn’t do all that he’d hoped, it’s the best that can be done at present. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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However, a vote in both houses threatens to kill the compromise and a fight from the Left and Tea Party representatives will still likely ensue. The debt debate shouldn’t have ever reached the eleventh hour, according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who vehemently disagrees with the methods taken to push a compromise through so late in the game.
“We don’t want to pass it to see what’s in it; we actually want to see what’s in it before we pass it. So now, we’re backing up against these deadlines, and … we’re being given these bills, we have no time to read them,” he says. “That is horrible governing. It’s an awful process and it’s going to produce an awful product.”
What is the product, exactly? The plan on the table includes nearly $1 trillion in immediate cuts, a debt ceiling increase of $2.1 trillion, and a bi-partisan committee established to agree on another $1.5 trillion in future spending. However, if that commission cannot agree, a trigger clause will automatically enact more cuts painful to both parties.
FNC’s Doug McKelway weighed in from his perch in D.C., saying that less than 24 hours before the August 2 deadline it remains unclear if the bill can actually pass in both Houses, regardless of the fact that Senate and House of Representative leaders unanimously back it.
But if a good and true compromise has something in it that everybody hates, McKelway and the Wall Street Journal say this bill’s a winner. For Democrats, the painful cut lies in the deal’s inclusion of potential tremendous cuts to medicare; for Republicans, it’s the prospect of tremendous cuts to defense spending.
Some confusion – and concern – has already been raised in regards to the trigger cuts, which would take place if the bi-partisan commission can’t agree on the additional $1.5 trillion in slashes. The committee, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans from both the House and the Senate, would be forced to find the substantial cuts over next year. If they can’t? Automatic trigger cuts would take place … severely cutting Medicare and enacting a 50 percent slash in defense spending.
In summary? Both sides can agree that it’s all an indication of how deeply in debt America truly is.
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