Republicans put off vote on debt limit
WASHINGTON
"The votes obviously were not there," conceded Rep. David
Dreier, R-Calif., after Speaker John Boehner and the leadership had
spent hours trying to corral the support of rebellious
conservatives.
The decision created fresh turmoil as divided government
struggled to head off an unprecedented default that would leave the
Treasury without the funds needed to pay all its bills.
Administration officials say Tuesday is the deadline for Congress
to act.
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the House bill,
and the White House taunted Republicans as they struggled.
"Another day wasted while the clock ticks, now is the time to
compromise so we can solve this problem and reduce the deficit,"
tweeted communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
Senate Democrats stood by to scuttle the bill -- if it ever got
them -- as a way of forcing Republicans to accept changes sought by
Obama.
The first sign of trouble for the House's supporters occurred
after hours of routine debate, when the GOP leadership suddenly
halted work on the measure.
As the evening slipped by Boehner summoned a string of
Republican critics of the bill to his office. Asked what he and the
speaker had talked about, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, "I think
that's rather obvious. ... There's negotiations going on."
Based on public statements by lawmakers themselves, it appeared
that five of some two dozen holdouts were from South Carolina. The
state is also represented by Sen. Jim DeMint, who has solid ties to
tea party groups and is a strong critic of compromising on the debt
issue.
Others said conservatives wanted additional steps taken to try
to send a constitutional balanced-budget amendment to the states
for ratification.
A few first-term conservatives slipped into a small chapel a few
paces down the hall from the Capitol Rotunda as they contemplated
one of the most consequential votes of their careers.
Asked if he was seeking divine inspiration, Rep. Tim Scott,
R-S.C., said that had already happened. "I was leaning no and now
I am a no."
Many more congregated in the office of the chief GOP vote
counter, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, perhaps drawn to the 19
boxes of pizza that were rolled in. Boehner joined them but did not
speak to reporters.
Earlier, Boehner had exuded optimism.
"Let's pass this bill and end the crisis," said the
president's principal Republican antagonist in a new and
contentious era of divided government. "It raises the debt limit
and cuts government spending by a larger amount."
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the measure, and
in debate on the House floor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of
Florida savaged it as a "Republican plan for default." She said
the GOP hoped to "hold our economy hostage while forcing an
ideological agenda" on the country.
Despite the sharp rhetoric, there were signs that gridlock might
be giving way.
"Around here you've got to have deadlock before you have
breakthrough," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "We're at that stage
now."
Wall Street suffered fresh losses as Congress struggled to break
its long gridlock. The Dow Jones industrial average was down for a
fifth straight session.
The Treasury Department moved ahead with plans to hold its
regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month securities on
Monday. Yet officials offered no information on what steps would be
taken if Congress failed to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt
limit by the following day.
Administration officials have warned of potentially calamitous
effects on the economy if the country defaults on its obligations --
a spike in interest rates, a plunge in stock markets and a
tightening in the job market in a nation already struggling with
unemployment over 9 percent.
White House press secretary Jay Carney outlined White House
compromise terms: "significant deficit reduction, a mechanism by
which Congress would take on the tough issues of tax reform and
entitlement reform and a lifting of the debt ceiling beyond ...
into 2013."
The last point loomed as the biggest obstacle.
The House bill cuts spending by $917 billion over a decade,
principally by holding down costs for hundreds of government
programs ranging from the Park Service to the Agriculture
Department and foreign aid.
It also provides an immediate debt limit increase of $900
billion, which is less than half of the total needed to meet
Obama's insistence that there be no replay of the current crisis in
the heat of the 2012 election campaigns.
An additional $1.6 trillion in borrowing authority would be
conditioned on passage of spending cuts of a greater amount.
The GOP bill's $917 billion in upfront spending cuts was
trillions less than many tea party-backed rank-and-file Republican
lawmakers wanted but a total that seemed nearly unimaginable when
they took power in the House last winter with an agenda of reining
in government. Numerous Republicans grumbled that the legislation
didn't cut more deeply, and Boehner and the rest of the GOP
leadership have spent their week cajoling reluctant conservatives
to provide the votes needed to pass it.
Until evening, it appeared they were succeeding.
"It gives us a little bit of heartburn because it doesn't go
big enough," said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a first-term lawmaker
who said he would vote for the bill as the best one available.
Another first-term Republican, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, said
the bill was "far from perfect. But I don't have the luxury of
writing the plan by myself, and neither does Speaker Boehner."
While the White House and Democrats objected to the House bill,
they readied an alternative that contained similarities.
Drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it provides for
$2.7 trillion in additional borrowing authority for the Treasury.
It also calls for cuts of $2.2 trillion, including about $1
trillion in Pentagon savings that assume the end of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even before the House voted, Reid served notice he would stage a
vote to kill the legislation almost instantly.
"No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put
our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable
situation a few short months from now," he said.
With the House and Senate focused on debt-limit legislation at
opposite ends of the Capitol, 11 religious leaders protesting
budget cuts were arrested in the Rotunda midway between the two
chambers.
Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine said on the House floor
that they were praying for those who will be "hurt the hardest"
by the bill being considered.
Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., countered that he, too was praying
-- to avoid a default.
The day's events marked the climax of a struggle that began last
winter, when the Treasury Department notified Congress it would
need additional borrowing authority, and Boehner said any increase
would have to include steps to reduce future spending.
At first the White House balked at the terms, then relented.
That gradually morphed into a series of bipartisan negotiations,
one led by Vice President Joe Biden, then another by Obama, and
finally, a round of golf that led to stab at a "grand bargain"
between the president and Boehner.
Boehner announced last Friday he was calling off the talks,
setting in motion a frantic week of maneuvering as the default
deadline grew near.