This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, July 24, 2011 - WASHINGTON - Warning that Republicans were playing with fire in the impasse over the debt limit, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Sunday that his message to House Speaker John Boehner on the consequences of default is: "If you break it, you own it."
But Boehner, R-Ohio, and other congressional Republicans appearing on talk shows, said they planned to assemble quickly a two-part package that would raise the debt ceiling and make spending cuts -- and, in effect, shift any blame to President Barack Obama and the Democrats if the government defaults on the Aug. 2 deadline.
In a weekend packed with cliches -- with Obama complaining that he had been "left at the altar" when Boehner withdrew Friday from "big plan" talks, and the speaker fuming that negotiating with the president is like "dealing with a bowl of Jell-O" -- the impending deadline put pressure on both sides to reach a compromise. Surveys indicated that the message from voters was another cliche: It's time to fish or cut bait.
Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Durbin contended that a short-term extension of the debt limit -- which Boehner hinted at in his earlier appearance on Fox News Sunday -- would disappoint credit-rating agencies and hurt the U.S. economy. "The notion that we're going to replay this movie in four to five months -- that we're going to face this whole thing all over again? The American economy is too fragile," Durbin said. "It's going to hurt us. It's going to stall our economy."
But Boehner, accusing Obama of worrying about his own reelection more than the country's long-term welfare, said he opposed the White House demand -- reiterated Sunday by chief of staff William Daley -- that any debt-limit hike extend beyond the fall 2012 elections. "The preferable path would be a bipartisan plan that involves all the leaders," Boehner said. "If that's not possible, I and my Republican colleagues in the House are prepared to move on our own."
Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat and a key player in the bipartisan "Gang of Six" talks to come up with a deficit-reduction deal, said Boehner and other Republicans "want to make this a campaign issue" by taking an unbending no-new-taxes approach, which Durbin said is a short-term view that could lead to a worsening of the economy. That's why the Republicans want another vote in six months or so, he alleged.
Another Gang of Six member, conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said that seems to be the most likely way to raise the debt ceiling on such short notice. Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Coburn said Daley's opposition to a short-term debt extension was "a ridiculous position because that's what he's going to get presented with" by Congress.
Read the Beacon's earlier story below:
WASHINGTON - Amid renewed warnings that failure to reach a debt and deficit deal could push the economy back into recession, the U.S. Senate debated a doomed "cut, cap and balance" bill Thursday while congressional and White House officials maneuvered behind the scenes to find a way to avoid government default.
Key players denied reports that the outlines of a $3 trillion deficit-reduction deal had been struck between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moved to dispense with the "cut, cap" vote on Friday so Congress can focus on more realistic options. Although it was adopted this week by the Republican-controlled House in a mainly party-line vote, "cut, cap" is given no chance for Senate approval.
Reid is working with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to refine a complicated fallback plan to allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline. Reid denounced the "cut, cap" bill as "perhaps some of the worst legislation in the history of this country." It would cut next year's spending by $111 billion, cap future non-defense outlays to 2006 levels and require congressional approval of a constitutional balanced budget amendment before any further increase in the nation's debt limit.
But Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., an early "cut, cap" cosponsor, praised the approach in a Senate speech and a Capitol press conference. "If there's a better plan, I'd be glad to see it," said Blunt, who told reporters that the bipartisan Gang of Six proposal is currently a mere outline and "not particularly helpful when it comes to solving the immediate problem in the next couple of weeks."
While dozens of senators have expressed support for, or interest in, the "gang's" outline, even gang member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., concedes it is unlikely that the far-reaching proposal -- which would involve sharp spending cuts and a controversial reform of the tax system -- could be translated into legislative language and adequately considered by Congress before the Aug. 2 deadline for raising the debt ceiling.
"We never wrote the Gang of Six proposal for deficit reduction with the debt ceiling in mind," Durbin told a small group of reporters. "But we are drawn into it now because many senators and congressmen are saying they won't extend the debt ceiling unless there is a clear path to long-term deficit reduction. It makes it complicated."
Durbin said "the Gang of Six proposal is still not written into bill form and has not been scored" by the Congressional Budget Office to estimate its impacts. "So it is unlikely that any aspect of that Gang of Six bill will be part of any debt-ceiling extension." Even so, he said, it is possible that the planned Reid-McConnell bill would form a bipartisan Senate-House panel that would "reach an agreement on deficit reduction," with a guaranteed up-or-down vote. "What we are discussing ... is building into that equation this Gang of Six approach," Durbin said. "It could either be an alternative that's offered [to the new panel's plan] or the default if, for example, there is no majority agreement on the joint committee."
The gang's suggestions include many recommendations made in December by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The co-chair of that commission, former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, told the Beacon last week that congressional failure to raise the debt limit and approve a significant deficit-reduction plan would lead to serious economic consequences and a backlash from disgruntled voters.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., was among the lawmakers to praise the Gang of Six approach, while stopping short of endorsing the plan's outlines. In a Senate speech, he said the six senators "are creating a vital center on what is the most important issue facing the country," and added that the outlines of the plan "will dramatically reassure the American people, our markets, and especially our allies overseas that a free people and its representatives can kick their spending habit over time."
Kirk and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., were among 49 senators who attended a Gang of Six briefing earlier this week. While she did not endorse the plan's outline, McCaskill said, "It's a refreshing thing to have folks of all stripes sit down together, put politics aside and work toward some common-sense solutions. ... The devil will be in the details, but today's meeting gave me new hope that we'll be able to pass a responsible plan to cut spending and avoid a job-killing government default, all while protecting Social Security and Medicare."
For his part, Blunt told reporters Thursday that while the Gang of Six plan includes some good concepts, it remains an outline and "there are a lot of questions and not nearly enough answers yet." While the proposal is not likely to be considered directly between now and Aug. 2, Blunt said, it might "create a sense that there is a solution out there and we have a little more time to get to that solution."
Like many Republicans, Blunt has signed a no-new-taxes pledge, which is likely to constrain his options in backing a long-term deficit-reduction plan. Asked whether the senator is restrained by the pledge, Blunt spokeswoman Amber Marchand told the Beacon that the senator believes "that tax hikes are the wrong answer during this time of economic unrest, and he won't support a plan that raises taxes for job creators."
While some Republicans have questioned whether the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling is solid, Blunt said he thinks it is in the ballpark and added that "default has consequences." Underscoring that point, the Standard and Poor's rating agency issued a new statement Thursday, saying that failure to reach an agreement on raising the debt ceiling and reducing deficits -- while an unlikely scenario -- would cause turmoil in global financial markets and "likely shove the U.S. economy back into recession."
Such warnings have fostered a new sense of urgency among congressional and White House officials working behind the scenes to reach a deal. Once the "cut, cap" bill has been rejected by the Senate, insiders say, Republicans may be more open to cutting a deal. On Thursday afternoon, the New York Times and other national news outlets reported that the Obama administration had informed Democratic leaders that Obama and Boehner were close on a budget deal that would include major spending cuts and a tax overhaul that might involve future revenue.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney and Boehner himself denied that a deal was imminent. At a Capitol Hill news conference, Boehner called on the Senate to follow the House lead and approve "cut, cap." But he also hinted at a deal, saying that he was ready to call on Republicans to compromise to avoid default.
"Listen, the ball continues to be in the president's court and it's been there for some time," Boehner said. "If we're going to avoid default and prevent a downgrade of our credit rating, if we're going to create jobs and jumpstart the economy, I think he needs to step up and work with us on the spending cuts and reforms that the American people are demanding."
At the White House, Carney said that the reports "that we're somehow close to a deal are not accurate. They are talking. Lines of communication are open. They continue to have discussions. We continue to believe that a significant deficit reduction deal is possible. We certainly believe that is preferable. And we continue to be absolutely confident that the United States will continue to have the capacity to pay its bills beyond Aug. 2."
Carney said, "It is absolutely essential that any grand bargain, if you will, any significantly sized deficit reduction package be balanced; that it contain -- that it address all the drivers of our long-term debt and our significant deficits, and that includes non-defense discretionary spending . . . savings in defense spending...savings through the reform of our entitlement programs and ... savings through the tax code."
On revenue, Carney suggested: "We have to close loopholes, unnecessary subsidies to industries. We have to address the fact that if we are asking for some belt tightening and sacrifice from average Americans, from the middle class, we have to also insist that the most fortunate among us also contribute to this."
With several polls showed the public losing patience with Capitol Hill, many Republican and Democrats said this week that they want to see action soon. McCaskill told Politico that no member of Congress is likely to escape blame if the nation's credit rating is downgraded.
"I think we're all behaving like a bunch of boneheads," said McCaskill. "If anybody thinks they can escape blame in this scenario, they're not paying attention."