Tag Archives: debt limit

Will House of Reps take Senate deal?

Here’s my gazillion-dollar question: Suppose Sens. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell strike a deal that the entire Senate can endorse to reopen the federal government and extend the nation’s debt ceiling a few months, will the House of Representatives follow suit, or will the tea party — aka wacko — wing of the party sink it?

The Senate has taken the lead on negotiating a deal to end this madness — at least for now. The House leadership tried and failed to reach an agreement with the White House.

House Speaker John Boehner is being held captive by the insurgents within his own Republican Party. He cannot control about 30 of them, the so-called tea party wing. They’ve been able to stall just about everything in the House.

If the Senate approves a deal and sends it to the House, will the House then dig in its heels simply because it can, and then risk the economic futures of millions of Americans — a majority of whom blame Congress for this mess in the first place?

The House comprises 435 members, most of whom are Republicans. Of those Republicans, most of them comprise the so-called “establishment wing” of the party. The tea party cabal consists of a small minority. However, they’re calling the cadence in the people’s chamber.

It’s past time for the speaker to exert the authority he has to get a deal done. Now. Before it’s too late.

Why are we dickering and bickering over debt ceiling?

I’m still scratching my head.

President Obama makes sense when he says that the White House and Congress shouldn’t be negotiating over whether to increase the nation’s debt limit.

Still, here we are. Three days until our borrowing limit hits its maximum. We’re on the verge of defaulting on our national debt obligations. The implications of defaulting for the first time in our nation’s history are cataclysmic, if you believe the hundreds of non-partisan economists around the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/14/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Do those cranky members of Congress fail to grasp how angry they’re going to make millions of Americans — including yours truly — if they allow our retirement accounts to get flushed down the toilet?

Do they not read the papers — and other “mainstream media” outlets, for that matter — that tell them their standing among the public is at an all-time low? An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll puts Congress’s standing at 5 percent.

Ladies and gentlemen of Congress, listen up: You work for us. We are your bosses. We can fire you whenever the opportunity presents itself. That opportunity is coming up in about, oh, a year from now when we the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for election.

Why, indeed, are you negotiating over this matter?