A bipartisan group of senators is negotiating a roughly $55 billion debt “down payment” that would temporarily turn off automatic spending cuts and buy Congress at least six months to work out a bigger deal.The down payment would be linked to a deficit-reduction framework that would bind committees with jurisdiction over spending and taxes to an action plan, say sources familiar with the negotiations.If a deal is reached and leaders sign off on it, Congress could approve the plan in a lame-duck session.The goal of the group is to keep Congress from going over the so-called fiscal cliff without simply punting into next year the difficult questions over spending and taxes that have stymied their colleagues.All of the George W. Bush-era tax rates are set to expire at the end of the year, and automatic spending cuts to defense and non-defense programs, known as sequestration, are scheduled to begin in January. Congress also faces a decision soon on raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday said he was “not confident at all” that Congress and the White House could work out a major debt deal, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said it was too early to give up hope.
of course he, Beohner is not, they said they weren't and were not going to do anything remotely similar to earning their pay until they got ready, after the election, is Romney lockstep? which party sounds more like they want to "compromise" on solutions that will stop sequester and come to a agreement on the deby ceiling vote on the way. will republicans part deux? who works for who, progressives you, republicans Adelson, Koch's et al.
But the bipartisan group faces several hurdles to reaching a deal — most notably whether any tax increases would be included in the $55-billion package. This fight has doomed previous efforts to reach a grand bargain deficit-reduction plan.
Democratic negotiators say the down payment must include measures to raise new revenues, but Republicans have yet to agree.
and they are off and running, backwards, they seem to be trying to lose, let's be progressive's and give them a hand.
