I hope Yglesis is right

[ewagner]

about Senator Harry Reid's proposal. As I understand it, his dollar-for-dollar debt reduction with the increase in the debt limit EXCLUDES MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY CUTS but otherwise gives the Repubs everything they SAY they wanted.... The savings come mostly from phasing out the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

here's the link:

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/25/277811/harry-reid-calls-house-republicans-bluff/

and a snippet:

Republicans are rejecting this even though it nominally meets their demands. Why? Because it doesn’t achieve either of their two real objectives. In particular, the plan doesn’t cut Medicare, which means that Democratic party candidates for office in November 2012 and 2014 can accurately remind voters of the content of the Republican budget plan. In case you forgot, this plans repeals Medicare. Having repealed Medicare, it then gives seniors vouchers to purchase more expensive private health insurance. And having replaced Medicare with a voucher system, it then ensures that the vouchers will grow steadily stingier over time. It was only after voting for this plan that Republicans seem to have realized that repealing Medicare is unpopular.

I hope he's right...this is the best proposal I've seen yet that has any chance of breaking the deadlock.

[jtown1123]

1. Are there any links? My concern are these weird deficit cutting committees a lot

of these plans include that fast track SS and Medicare cuts separate from the normal legislative process...

[ewagner]

4. I've been looking for something

published by Reid's office but haven't found anything yet but the stuff he gave to Talking Points Memo

Here's that link...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/gop-stumbles-over-surprise-dem-debt-limit-offer.php?ref=fpa

[jtown1123]

5. Thanks much appreciated.

[Raven]

2. If the repubs reject this then it's the 14th A remedy and Obama

will look like a hero in deploying it.

[snappyturtle]

3. Here's another snippet from the article that I find particularly interesting:

"Second, while Reid’s plan doesn’t raise taxes, it also doesn’t take tax increases off the table. Currently, the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire in 2012. If Reid’s all-cuts plan passes, that still leaves the door open to significant revenue increases. Now that doesn’t mean this is brilliant 11-dimensional chess. The Reid Plan is consistent with substantial revenues coming online in 2012, but that will only happen if President Obama and Senate Democrats stand firm and play hardball on the tax issue. Back in December 2010, they utterly failed to do so."

[ewagner]

6. ...sort of like that...

It's a nice parliamentary maneuver....

[snappyturtle]

7. Me too!

[freshwest]

8. This will never make it to mainstream GOP controlled media. We have to inform as many as we can.

And hope that in the week ahead, and it's only a week until trillions of dollars of debt are due to be paid, Reid gets the votes. Or else we'll be face with that Super Congress, or if we default, a crisis that will make the 1929 crash seem benign. The GOP would love it.