Reply #10: Boehner, Reid to unveil new debt plans as deadline nears

[FreakinDJ]

Source: Alan Silverleib and Tom Cohen, CNN

Boehner, Reid to unveil new debt plans as deadline nears

Democratic and Republican congressional leaders are set to unveil new deficit reduction plans Monday as top officials scramble to bridge a cavernous partisan divide and raise the federal government's debt ceiling before an unprecedented -- and potentially devastating -- national default.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, is expected to outline a blueprint calling for roughly $2.7 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade while raising the debt limit by $2.4 trillion -- an amount sufficient to fund the government through the 2012 election. Reid's plan would not require any new tax hikes or reforms to politically popular entitlement programs.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is expected to outline a two-stage plan. The first stage calls for approximately $1.2 trillion in spending cuts while raising the debt ceiling through the end of 2011, two Republican leadership aides told CNN. The second stage would raise the debt limit through 2012, but tie the increase to major tax reforms and entitlement changes outlined by a bipartisan commission composed of Senate and House members.

Boehner's plan also includes a vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution by the end of this year, according to the speaker's office.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/25/debt.talks/index.html?hpt=hp_c1