While the Senate won’t even bother voting on the cut, cap and balance plan the House passed Tuesday:
A House Republican and a member of the New Democrat coalition are jointly calling on Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring the Senate’s Gang of Six deficit-reduction proposal to a House vote alongside an increase in the debt ceiling.
Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) sent a letter Tuesday to Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) voicing their support for the just-released Gang of Sixproposal, which calls for $3.7 trillion in budget savings over a decade.
“We applaud this effort and ask that you provide the opportunity to vote on this proposal as part of any request for an increase in the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 debt ceiling deadline,” Wolf and Cooper wrote.
I’ve come around to opposing the Gang plan. It’s not real and therefore won’t turn out to cut spending as promised. Also, the American people haven’t really had the chance to even look at it and weigh it for themselves. It’s yet another backroom deal from a town that seems to offer nothing but backroom deals these days.
And still, no plan from the White House that promised transparency but now says leadership is not putting plan out there where it can be voted on. Come again?
Fine, let the House vote on it. It won’t pass, and then we’re back at the stalemate of the House passing a plan, the Senate drafting vaporware, and the White House scolding everyone else while ducking responsibility.
I’d say leave it alone. The House just sent something up to the Senate; let it hang there. Vote on another plan while it’s hanging there and it will blunt the message even if it’s voted down; G-d forbid it be passed and compete for attention in the Senate.
The ball’s been lobbed to the Democrats; let them lob it back or drop the ball. The House should sit tight.
Exactly. It’s the Dems’ turn now. Besides, seeing them twist in the wind is pretty entertaining…popcorn is popping.
Heard John McCain on Hannity last night and he sounded like a man beat down and ready to accept ANYTHING to avoid a gov’t shutdown. I’m sure the Dem’s were listening to that too and thinking they have this thing in the bag. More spending, token cuts, and a pass to the 2012 election. Obama does absolutely nothing and claims victory in the end. Another GOP fail.
If Obama, Reid and Pelosi like it, it’s a set up plain and simple.
One of the Gang of 6 is my Senator, Mark Warner, who is really talented at posing as a moderate but legislating and governing as a straight up liberal. As Governor he passed the largest tax increase in Virginia history and amazingly ran for Senate as a fiscal hawk. And a majority of Virginians actually bought it.
I agree with the Tatler, put it up for a vote in the House> It’s DOA.
The problem with the Gang Plan is that it isn’t a plan.
What it is, is a plan to make a plan.
That is to say, it’s a promise – and we all know what a promise is in DC.
I will say this once again;
In October 2010 Republicans assured us that they had learned their lesson.
Clearly they learned the WRONG lesson. It seems the lesson they learned was 1995.
The Lesson they should have learned was “Read My Lips.”
Obama has raised spending by approx one Trillion per year over 2008 levels.
Saving even ten trillion dollars over ten years just gets us back to 2008 spending levels, which were already unsustainable.
Reductions of less than 2 Trillion in the next 2 years represents a “lock in” of Obama’s insane spending.
Also, nothing agreed to by the current Congress will have a shelf life beyond 2012 if Obama is re-elected.
If Republicans take Obama off the hook now, they’ll have undermined any rationale for maintaining them in their positions.
Just last night one of this Gang of 6 admitted there is NO plan.
It has not been drawn up.
It cannot be scored by the CBO.
It does not yet exist.
So, it is a bit premature to VOTE ON IT.
Really.
Haven’t our elected legislators learned not to vote on things they haven’t read….yet?
It isn’t even a proper backroom deal. It’s a promise to raise taxes now and create a backroom deal, or not, later on cuts.