No end in sight as Obama restarts debt talks

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ERICA WERNER

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama and congressional leaders are scrambling to find a way forward on a debt deal after House Speaker John Boehner threw negotiations into crisis by walking out on them with less than two weeks left to avert a potentially catastrophic default.

A visibly frustrated Obama called Boehner, R-Ohio, to come back to the White House Saturday morning along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Reid's counterpart Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. "We have run out of time and they are going to have to explain to me how it is that we are going to avoid default," the president told reporters at a hastily scheduled press conference Friday night.

Boehner accepted the invitation even while arguing that Obama bore the blame for the collapse of talks. "It's the president who walked away from his agreement and demanded more money at the last minute," Boehner said. "And the only way to get that extra revenue was to raise taxes."

The political theater played out even as the Aug. 2 deadline drew ever nearer. Barring action by then, the Treasury will be unable to pay its bills, and the economic fallout could send interest rates up, threaten the fragile U.S. recovery and send shock waves around the globe.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110723/D9OL7B1G2.html

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House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio talks about the break down of debt ceiling talks with the White House during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday, July 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

[DCBob]

1. I think the end is in sight. The President is seriously winning the optics battle..

and GOPers know it. Even Grover is calling for them to throw in the towel. I expect a deal will emerge soon.

[bvar22]

11. I don't care if he WINS the "Optics Battle",

I want him to WIN the Policy Battle.

The Republicans will give him an Optics WIN,
as long as the resulting policy is REPUBLICAN.

SEE: The Health Care Bill

[Fearless]

14. +1000

The kind of cuts to SS/Medicare/Medicaid that Obama was proposing ALONE is enough to damn the bill in the eyes of the American public. That they even entertained such numbers (anything higher than 0) is shameful and embarrassing.

[xchrom]

2. not sure i care anymore. nt

[DCBob]

3. give up already?? This is the endgame now.

IMHO, there will be a deal by Monday.

[Maineman]

4. Boehner's tantrum suggests he knows the Repub foolishness is backfiring. If there is no deal by

by Monday, I predict the down grade will actually happen.

[DCBob]

5. Yes, I think so too... which is why the GOpers are going to give in and make a deal.

I bet they are getting tons of phone calls from their fat cat donors/corporate types insisting they make a deal.

[AlinPA]

17. Nope- it's aimed for default. No way the teabaggers will abide raising the

debt ceiling. Boehner will do everything he can to satisfy them.

[KewlKat]

6. I'd like to know

just what was on the table and will we be eating catfood with our peas. Someone told me yesterday that they also had some tax deduction changes in these talks.

[Yon_Yonson]

7. Boner chocked on his own vomit

"And the only way to get that extra revenue was to raise taxes" hey you assernine politician there is your clue.

[Major Hogwash]

8. He who walks out of a meeting is he who is to blame for the talks collapsing.

We all know that is true, Boehner, even if you whine, cry, and snivel and say something totally different after you come out of the bathroom you have locked yourself in.
I've dealt with young children for nearly 40 years, and you are acting like a spoiled child.

And that's all there is to it.
The American people can see it for themselves.
You're the baby in the room, Boehner!!

The little fucking crybaby.
With the wet diapers and throwing your rattle at everyone else.

Little fucking crybaby Boehner.
That's some legacy you've got there, Boehner.

[lunatica]

9. My opinion of the Republicans has been downgraded

I've always felt they were cynical but now I see them as being brutally cynical. Boehner believes he's fooling us, the lowly people, when he claims he's protecting us from having our taxes raised. He stand up there and lies through his fucking teeth while putting on a look of concern for us. He's fucking brutally cynical using us to justify his true reason which is kissing the asses of the rich. He's singularly loathsome and he's also a chicken shit coward quacking in his boots in terror of the teabaggers.

[woo me with science]

10. Sigh.

More theater.

We know they have to drag it out until the deadline.

[PSPS]

13. That's the M.O.

The fact that their theatrical play calls for "dragging it out until the last minute," we know that it will involve gutting what's left of the "social safety net" to please the plutocrats. Obama, Boehner and the rest (including the corporate media) are all playing their roles perfectly. I guess this is how we get the "IMF austerity treatment" here in the land of Hollywood.

[Islandlife]

20. So true...

Both sides understand that victory is sweeter at the last possible moment. The buzzer beater. The hail Mary. Like Rocky Balboa. Great suspense and our expense.

[bvar22]

12. A downgrade or default will hurt the Republican Big Money people...

..a lot more than it will hurt the Working Class & The Poor.

WE know how to deal with hard times.

[AndyTiedye]

15. They Will Make Out Like Bandits On Their Ultrashort ETFs

Cantor isn't the only one shorting Treasuries. :grr:

[AlinPA]

18. You nailed it. That is their motivation and republicans will be richer after this default.

[Igel]

16. There is that.

At least the logic is consistent.

A fair amount of the time I hear this:

"The rich should pay their fair share. They benefit more from government, from tax expenditures, so they should pay more taxes."

Now, however, I'm hearing:

"The rich should pay more taxes. If we cut expenditures they won't suffer nearly as much, so in the interest of shared sacrifice cuts to spending should be small but tax increases on the rich should be great."

So we have A and not-A holding at the same time. That is, they benefit more from government programs but also wouldn't suffer loss of benefits from having them cut.

On the other hand, you have to distinguish between default and downgrade. If there's a default, it's because Obama--no way Geithner's going to make this call on his own--has chosen default over non-payment of other benefits. Default is both illegal and absolutely avoidable.

The talk of downgrade is rather different. It's based on the long-term (intermediate term, possibly not much more than short-term) unsustainability of the deficit. As the Greek situation has worsened and become more problematic, as Spain and Ireland and Portugal and Italy have had things worsen, S&P has taken the deficit increasingly seriously while other services haven't publicly altered their predictions about how they'll fitch US Treasuries. They all saw how the deficit was a problem; looking at a month or two of negotiating over it, seeing how the battle lines have formed, seeing that all three sides more each than willing for some to fall on their swords for their principles--just as long as it's not the holders of said principles whose delicate guts are subjected to so vile a piercing--has apparently wilted S&P's formerly stiff upper lip. Well, only marginally flaccid upper lip.

[hughee99]

19. I think they already have a deal.

Both sides know where this is going to end up and that public opinion will not sway significantly enough to give either side more leverage. They also know that the plan they have is a political turd, and that the only way to survive it politically is to announce it at the last second, give as few specifics as possible, and tell the people that they had to do "something". It's from the same playbook as the bank bailout.