Turns out President Obama will come to the Capitol to talk debt ceiling…just not today.
At a Thursday Senate press conference, scheduled minutes before it began, Democratic leaders called out their GOP counterparts, who invited Obama to the Hill without notice in order to swipe at him later for declining. Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that Obama will come, along with the Vice President Joe Biden, to visit Senators on Wednesday.
“Next week, on Tuesday, we’re going to have Sen. [Kent] Conrad who’s worked really hard with the people on the Budget Committee to come up with a way forward on the budget,” Reid said.
On Wednesday we’re going to have another caucus, we’re going to have administration folks come up, I’ve invited the President, Vice President - come. We also on Thursday, we’re going to have the president’s economic team come, led by Gene Sperling and others. We need to stay on top of this. These things get resolved by meetings, people meeting and discussing things. I’ve had a number of senators both Democrats and Republicans say to me, do we really need to be here? Well we have to be here otherwise if one’s not here they all won’t be here. We don’t want anyone to think that what we’re doing here just the few of us can do. The whole caucus has to be involved.
Dems probably won’t vote on Conrad’s budget, a twist Republicans will enjoy. But Reid may force votes on a number of fun tax expenditures — like the one benefiting corporate jet owners — to put Republicans on the spot.
Additional reporting by Igor Bobic.
Brian Beutler
Brian Beutler is TPM's senior congressional reporter. Since 2009, he's led coverage of health care reform, Wall Street reform, taxes, the GOP budget, the government shutdown fight, and the debt limit fight. He can be reached at brian@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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