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McConnell Says ‘Very Close’ to Deal on Debt-Ceiling Agreement With Obama UPDATE: Reid’s Bill Fails Senate Vote

Posted on | July 31, 2011 | 28 Comments

UPDATE 1:25 p.m. ET: The Senate just held a cloture vote on Harry Reid’s bill which, as expected, failed to get the 60 votes necessary to end debate and proceed. The vote was 50 “aye” and 49 “no.” So much for Reid’s bill being the “only game in town,” huh?

UPDATE 2:15 p.m. ET: Here’s the roll-call vote. Scott Brown of Massachusetts was the only Republican to vote “aye,” while Democrats Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Ben Nelson (Nebraska) both voted “no,” as did socialist independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Reid voted against his own bill on the cloture motion; this is a parliamentary maneuver, since voting “no” permits Reid to bring his bill up for a vote later.

Linked at Legal Insurrection — thanks!

PREVIOUSLY (11:45 a.m. ET): The outlines of the Neither Fish Nor Fowl Bipartisan Sellout Compromise Act of 2011 are coming into focus, and the Senate Republican leader is cautious:

McConnell said he is “very very close to being able . . . to recommend to my members that this is something that they ought to support.”
“You’ll see that this is a process that could get him (President Obama) past the election. We’re working on the combinations that will get us there,” McConnell said. “I’m particularly appreciative that we’re now back talking to the only person in America who can sign something into law and that’s the president of the United States.”

Getting Senate approval for a compromise plan will likely be much easier than getting such a deal through the House, as I explain at The American Spectator:

How many Republican votes can House Speaker John Boehner deliver for a compromise that abandons principles that were seen as essential to conservatives, when he could just barely get 218 votes for his own bill Friday? And if Boehner can’t deliver a majority for the compromise deal, can Nancy Pelosi produce any Democrat votes at all, considering that zero Democrats voted for Boehner’s bill?

If this deal does go through, the biggest loser will be Harry Reid, as Professor William Jacobson says: “We don’t know all the details of the negotiations between Mitch McConnell and the White House which apparently are closing in on an agreement, but one thing is clear, Harry Reid has become a sideshow.”

There’s always more room under Obama’s bus, isn’t there?

UPDATE: Linked by Da Tech Guy — thanks! — and the latest word is that there will be a procedural “test vote” in the Senate at 1 p.m. ET.

UPDATE: OK, here are details on the “test vote,” which is a cloture motion on Harry Reid’s bill:

Talks intensified ahead of a test vote in the Senate on the Democrats’ debt-ceiling plan. That vote is expected to fail, putting the onus on negotiators to come up with yet another alternative. . . .
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has postponed a vote on his deficit-reduction package until 1 p.m. ET. That vote is still scheduled to take place, but 43 Senate Republicans have already vowed to oppose it, putting more pressure on negotiators to come up with an alternative.

Right now, I’m watching C-SPAN2, where Barbara Boxer is blathering on with her usual partisan crap.

UPDATE III: Boxer’s crap has now ended, and John McCain is now debating Dick Durbin. It’s like Freddie Krueger vs. Jason, Alien vs. Predator.

UPDATE IV: Amid the accusations of “betrayal!” and “sellout!” from conservatives angry at GOP concessions, let’s pause to look at what liberals are saying. Nate Silver of the New York Times:

The debt deals as reported really seem like more a capitulation by the White House than a compromise.

What the Left wanted — nay, demanded — were tax-increases on “The Rich” and “Corporate America.” Obama gave speech after speech demonizing “millionaires and billionaires.” But when push came to shove, he folded like a cheap suit.

If conservatives were in a mood to declare victory, we could easily do so on such grounds. Yet it seems to be Night of the Long Knives time, and there is a lot of grassroots anger toward the Republican Establishment.

Linked by Don Surber — thanks!


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Category: Barack Obama, Budget, Congress, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Senate

Comments

  • Joe

    I am going to make a prediction that this deal sucks. 

  • Joe

    I do enjoy Harry Reid beclowning himself, but that is small solice. 

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  • http://kingshamus.wordpress.com/ KingShamus

    I’m going to make a prediction that Joe is right.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    No its a good deal if what I read about it was accurate, or to put it more succinctly, its the best deal we could possibly hope to get with Democrats controlling the executive branch and half the legislative branch. I just hope nobody torpedoes it, because its actually a better deal than I was thinking we’d ever get.

  • Anonymous

    This is the “All about Obama” bill.

  • http://profiles.google.com/dianna.deeley Dianna Deeley

    Stacy? The old saw is, “Neither flesh, nor fowl, nor good red herring.” I gather it’s been modified a lot, but I always liked it the old way.

  • http://profiles.google.com/dianna.deeley Dianna Deeley

    I’m seeing only approximately $600 billion in cuts, and that merely to growth, not actual cuts. If that’s the best we can get, we deserve a credit downgrade.

  • http://profiles.google.com/dianna.deeley Dianna Deeley

    It takes him through the election, which seems like a very bad idea.

  • kansas

    Close to a deal?  I have not heard that before.

  • http://profiles.google.com/dianna.deeley Dianna Deeley

    I started seeing that about 10 last night (Pacific time); I saw the first details from rdbrewer at Ace’s, and he linked Yid with Lid.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MJGP4QXZ5PRW2MFA5E25CV2WNU rosalie

    I don’t know much but I’m sure in the end we’re going to get the shaft.  McConnell is another one on my list that I can’t stand to look at. 

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    Here’s what I saw. This was on Weasel Zippers.

    *Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion

    *Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion

    *Vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment

    *Special committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)

    *Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recess

    *If
    Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic
    across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and
    Medicare.

    If this is it, that looks pretty good to me.

  • Anonymous

    Any deal will be bad for the country.  We have to draw the line on spending somewhere, and the time to draw it is now!  The debt ceiling must not be raised.  Ever again.  No matter what is offered in return.

  • Anonymous

    Almost as bad, it gets obie his birthday party.

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  • Anonymous

    Sorry TPT but NO deal is better then what the rinos are coming up with.
    Or to make it simple…no budget increase, no debt ceiling increase.

  • Anonymous

    Any deal that reduces spending after this congress adjourns is invalid as no congress is bound by a previous congress.
    So what Baehner is really doing is increasing the debt ceiling and taxes…nothing else. THERE ARE NO CUTS… NONE.

    Oh yea…the House controls the money & the other 2 branches can’t do anything without House approval

    So whats this about a great paln again? What did I miss?

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  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I would agree with you if we controlled more than one-third of the government. But we don’t, and the deal we are getting is better really than we could have hoped for. I’ve got my eye on the prize, which is a long term strategy. We have so much we can attack Obama with.

    Just the lousy economy might be enough, but then there’s Cap And Trade and the EPA enforcing it against the expressed wishes of the Congress, and there’s Fast And Furious, which might in the long run turn out to be an impeachable offense as well might his actions with the EPA. And I still say he’s involved up to his eyeballs with the crap going on in the Middle East. What about Israel? See as long as this SHIT keeps going on, that’s that much longer he can obfuscate and delay and hide all of these issues from public scrutiny. That’s all this crap is good for, and in the long run, its not helping us with the average voter. It’s something that is going to be seen as being as much our fault as his, if not more our fault.

    Again, we’ve got as good a deal as we probably could have hoped for, so its time to declare victory-admittedly a minor victory, but a victory nonetheless-and move the hell on to beating this asswipe in November ’12. Dragging this crap out is not the way to do it.

  • http://2011.ak4mc.us/ McGehee

    You’re still talking like We Need To Do Somethin!!!™

    That assumption has not been proved.

  • Anonymous

    Since any deal that actually passes will need to get through the Dem Senate and be signed by Obama, of course it will suck. However, since doing nothing will be a disaster (and yes, it will be, sorry), the question is how to pass a deal that sucks the least.

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  • Anonymous

    “We” may only control one house, but that is enough to prevent any action.  And it’s OK with me if the debt ceiling stays right where it is.  In fact, it needs to.

  • ThomasD

    Maybe people are still up in arms because this was never about getting a victory for Washington Republicans?    The goal was to get some real rollback in Washington’s insane spending habits. 

    You know, a victory for the American people…

    Looks like that aint happening.

  • http://thepagantemple.blogspot.com/ ThePaganTemple

    I don’t care about the debt ceiling, you’re missing the whole point. Hell, lower the damn debt ceiling for all I care. But that’s not going to happen either. And yeah, I get that controlling one third of the government gives you some power, and certainly some leverage and influence, but what it doesn’t get you, and never will, is your way on everything. I’m going to be really curious to see how people react when the Democrats are once again the minority party and they hold everything up that we try to do. Actually there’s not much difference in Senate Democrats and House Republicans right now. Hell, they both even think they’re right. Isn’t that a coincidence?

  • Anonymous

    It’s not happening today — but when the Repubs who vote to raise the debt ceiling all lose in November 2012, the big-spending leaders who now run the GOP will either learn or be replaced.

    Or some other party will replace theirs.  The Libertarian, Constitution, and Reform parties come to mind.

  • Anonymous

    Ace pinpoints the problem exactly.

    “Without the willingness to shut the government down, they have no leverage. Most of them don’t even pretend at the fiction that they’re willing to do that.”

    The unwillingness to use the only lever they really have is the reason for their repeated defeats since January.

    http://minx.cc/?post=319489

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