Debt Ceiling

Pelosi Outlines Revenue-Free Path Forward On Debt Limit Fight

Brian Beutler | July 22, 2011, 2:28PM

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi acknowledged Friday that Democrats may reluctantly accept a last-minute compromise to avoid a default that involves up to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts -- without agreed-upon new tax revenues -- if Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are protected from the debt limit brinksmanship.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Debt Ceiling Negotiations At The White House]

The plan would place a firewall between entitlement spending and the threat of default, upsetting GOP plans to force deep, immediate cuts to those programs. And if, as a result, the GOP declined the offer, Democrats would agree to punt the questions of entitlement spending and tax revenues to a future, streamlined legislative process.

The potential endgame, Pelosi said, would meet an arbitrary GOP requirement that Congress must only grant President Obama as much new borrowing authority as he's willing to accept in spending cuts, and leave for a later date a twinned fight over revenues and social insurance programs.

"We're willing to bite the bullet and make serious cuts in discretionary spending," Pelosi told a small group of reporters and bloggers. "That could go to a trillion dollars or more. And the interest saved on that can take us to like a trillion and a half dollars saved."

We could go even further with non-health mandatories, could take us almost to two trillion. We could use the offshore -- the Overseas Contingency [the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan] -- could take us to two-and-a-half trillion dollars. Which is the dollar-for-dollar for the lifting the debt ceiling. I don't think we have to have dollar-for-dollar, but for those who think they do, there's a path to get there.

That's not a great deal for Democrats, she noted, but it protects key programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. "[T]hat's a non-revenue path. I don't like it at all but it doesn't go near our entitlements," Pelosi said.

There's one big problem: "I don't think the Republicans are going to accept that. So whatever they would want to accept over-and-above that would have to be something, I think, down the road. And that would be treating entitlements and revenue."

This framework is compatible with a plan Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have written, and will deploy if President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) can't reach a consensus on an even farther-reaching package. But they have precious little time. "The moment of truth is now, Harry Reid says he needs eight days to take anything to the floor," she said.

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Medicare/Medicaid

Debt Deal Could Spare Middle and Upper Class Seniors, But Slam The Poor

Benjy Sarlin | June 20, 2011, 5:45AM

Medicaid recipients receive treatment

Democrats' rallying cry on deficit talks couldn't be clearer: It's the elderly, stupid.

That means Medicare benefits are off-limits, a message that Democrats plan to reinforce at every opportunity through November 2012. With Republicans demanding trillions in cuts to raise the debt limit, however, savings are going to have to come from somewhere. The most logical option left is Medicaid, a favorite conservative target whose low-income recipients carry little clout in Washington compared to Medicare's elderly and middle-class base.

But there is one politically tricky obstacle to cutting Medicaid: Millions of seniors -- including those who consider themselves middle class -- rely on Medicaid cover their nursing home care, meaning any raid on its funding could complicate Democrats' image a the tireless champion of retirees across the land.

Mindful of the problem, aides and lawmakers are floating a way forward: shielding the elderly from Medicaid cuts while slashing aid to poor and uninsured Americans.

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Republicans

GOP: Obama's Speech So Partisan We'll Never Reach Budget Agreement

Brian Beutler | April 13, 2011, 6:55PM

House Republicans recoiled Wednesday evening from President Obama's speech on America's budget woes. After spending most of the week pre-empting the address, and rejecting its expected calls for tax increases on wealthy Americans, Republicans endured a broad and severe critique of their vision for the country.

Their responses thus edged beyond substance into the realm of personal grievance. Indeed, they implied that the speech may have poisoned the well so much that working together where common ground exists might now be impossible.

"I missed lunch for this?" complained Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chair of the House GOP conference, at a Capitol press conference shortly after the address.

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Rob Andrews

Dem Rep On Fenty's Anti-Union Rhetoric: 'Maybe That's Why He's The Former Mayor'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | March 8, 2011, 5:14PM

Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) and former Mayor of D.C. Adrian Fenty

Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ) doesn't have time for former Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty's (D) concern over collective bargaining, and he says it's clear most Democrats in the nation's capital don't either. Speaking with TPM after a hearing on the union struggles in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana, Andrews dismissed Fenty's anti-union talk on MSNBC earlier on Tuesday.

Speaking on Morning Joe Tuesday morning, Fenty -- whose term in office was marked by battles with organized labor in the city, especially the teacher's union -- said that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was "right on the substance" and "right on the politics" when it came to the fight with unions and their supporters in the Badger State.

"I think it's a new day," Fenty said. "I think a lot of these collective bargaining agreements are completely outdated."

Andrews was not impressed.

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