a*****y
发帖数: 33185 | 1 Senate reaches deal to end shutdown, avoid default
[Breaking news update 12:20 p.m. ET]
Senate leaders announced on Wednesday that they have reached a deal to end
the government shutdown and avoid a possible U.S. default.
[Original story moved at 11:45 a.m. ET]
Senate leaders on Wednesday worked out a deal to reopen the government and
avoid a potential U.S. default as soon as midnight, sources told CNN's Dana
Bash and Ted Barrett.
Formal announcement of the agreement will come at 12 noon ET on the Senate
floor, a Republican Senate aide told Bash.
Republican leaders convened the Senate's full GOP caucus in the morning, and
Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said on her way in that the announcement
would be coming.
"I understand that they've come to an agreement but I'm going to let the
leader announce that," Ayotte said.
Exact details of the Senate plan were not known. Nor was it clear how the
Senate and House would proceed in considering the measure.
Both chambers would have to take special steps to get the legislation passed
and to President Barack Obama's desk before the government's ability to
borrow money expires on Thursday.
Legislators dropped hints on their way home on Tuesday that Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, would
quickly finalize an agreement in the works all week.
U.S. stocks opened sharply higher on expectations Washington would end its
partisan fiscal impasse. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped
200 points.
Short-term plan
According to sources, the Senate deal under discussion would reopen the
government, funding it until January 15. It would also raise the debt limit
until February 7 to avert a possible default on U.S. debt obligations for
the first time.
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gridlock
It also would set up budget negotiations between the House and Senate for a
long-term spending plan, and would include a provision to strengthen
verification measures for people seeking government subsidies under Obama's
signature health care reforms.
The focus shifted to the Senate after House Republicans failed on Tuesday to
come up with a plan their majority could support, stymied again by demands
from tea party conservatives for outcomes unacceptable to Obama and Senate
Democrats, as well as some fellow Republicans.
It remained unclear if the congressional tea party wing led by Sen. Ted Cruz
of Texas would continue efforts to force its demands into a congressional
deal, perhaps by trying to filibuster or otherwise delay Senate action.
"It's up to him. I would hope he wouldn't," Ayotte, who represents New
Hampshire, told CNN's "New Day." "Senators can cause to you run out the
clock, but what's he trying to gain at this point? I would hope that
whatever comes forward, that we would allow a vote on it as soon as possible
."
Cruz, despite being in the Senate, is credited with spearheading the House
Republican effort to attach amendments that would dismantle or defund the
health care reforms known as Obamacare to previous proposals intended to end
the shutdown.
All were rejected by the Democratic-led Senate, and Obama also pledged to
veto them, meaning there was no chance they ever would have succeeded.
Ayotte called the tactic of tying Obamacare to the shutdown legislation "an
ill-conceived strategy from the beginning, not a winning strategy."
However, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa advocated continued
brinksmanship to try to change Obamacare, which conservatives detest as a
big-government overreach.
"If we're not willing to take a stand now, then when will we take this stand
?" he told CNN's "New Day," adding that if "the conservative Republican plan
had been implemented five years ago, say at the inception of what is now
the Obama presidency, we would have far less debt and deficit."
Despite warnings by Obama and economists that a U.S. default would spike
interest rates and could have catastrophic impacts at home and abroad, King
said he's not too concerned if the government passes Thursday's deadline to
raise the borrowing limit.
"It's just a date they picked on the calendar," he said, adding that the
government will still be able to pay the interest on its debt. "I'm more
concerned about market reaction than I am of default itself."
Thursday marks the day the Treasury Department will run out of special
accounting maneuvers to keep the nation under the legal borrowing limit.
From that point on, it will have to pay the country's incoming bills and
other legal obligations with an estimated $30 billion in cash, plus whatever
daily revenue comes in.
The expectation is that the Treasury will be able to pay bills in full for a
short time after Thursday, but exactly how long remains unclear. According
to the best outside estimates, the first day the government will run short
of cash could come between October 22 and November 1.
Officials warn that an unknown is whether creditors such as foreign
countries that traditionally roll over their U.S. bond holdings could decide
to instead cash out, creating a potentially major payout that the
government would lack funds to fulfill.
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ceiling
What happens next?
A top GOP Senate aide said Wednesday that leaders in that chamber remain "
optimistic an agreement can be reached," the same tone sounded Tuesday after
lawmakers called it a night around 10 p.m. Senate staffers burned midnight
oil to draft a framework bill.
A break from tradition
If the Senate passes an agreement, House Speaker John Boehner will probably
face the decision of whether to allow a vote that he knows can only pass
with virtually all Democrats and only a few of his fellow Republicans
supporting it.
That would break a Republican tradition known as the Hastert rule. The
informal tenet, named after former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, says that
the House speaker does not introduce legislation unless a majority of
Republicans say they will vote for it first.
It has served to keep proposals off the floor, even if they have the
prospect of passing via the votes of Democrats combined with those of some
moderate Republicans.
House Republicans have expected Boehner to uphold the rule, which asserts
the party's interests in the chamber, and he has pledged to do so. However,
Boehner has previously allowed votes on measures lacking full Republican
support at times of similar brinksmanship, such as the fiscal cliff
negotiations in late December and early January that raised tax rates on
wealth Americans.
"I believe that John Boehner will likely be in a position, where he will
have to essentially pass the bill that is negotiated between Sens. McConnell
and Reid," said Republican Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who added
that he would vote for the Senate plan.
About 20 Republicans would have to back the Senate plan for it to pass,
assuming that virtually all of the chamber's 200 Democrats also would
support it.
Rep. Charles Rangel compares tea party in House to 'confederates'
Slow process
Even so, it could take a day or two more for a deal to make it through the
legislative process. By then, the nation will have run out of borrowing
authority.
While tax revenues will continue to stream in, that money will be enough to
pay only part of the government's obligations over time. The impact is
unclear in the immediate short term, but over days and weeks, it would mean
that government officials would have to pick and choose which bills to pay
and which to leave for another day.
The prospect of the U.S. government running out of money to pay its bills
and, eventually, finding it difficult to make payments on the debt itself,
has economists around the world prophesying dire consequences.
Mutual funds, which are not allowed to hold defaulted securities, may have
to dump masses of U.S. treasuries.
Ratings agency Fitch fired a warning shot Tuesday that it may downgrade the
country's AAA credit rating to AA+ over the political brinksmanship and
bickering in Washington that have brought the government to this point.
That could help raise interest rates on U.S. debt, putting the country
deeper into the red.
Rating agency Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+
after the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. Moody's still has the U.S. rated AAA.
Investors around the world appeared to be sitting on the sidelines Wednesday
waiting out the day's debate.
Asian markets ended with mixed results, European markets were down slightly
Friday afternoon and U.S. stock futures -- frequently taken as an indicator
for how U.S. markets will open -- were up marginally before trading began
Wednesday.
Emergency brake?
Some scholars have suggested that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution
gives Obama an emergency brake to stop the default by ignoring what Congress
does and borrowing in spite of having reached the debt ceiling.
Section 4 of the amendment states: "The validity of the public debt of the
United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of
pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,
shall not be questioned."
Obama has rejected such claims, the Congressional Research Service has said.
And other scholars say that by invoking the 14th Amendment in this way, the
President would risk breaking other laws.
But the same scholars who say this say they believe that section 4 was
formulated to keep politicians from holding the debt hostage in order to
impose their political will on the natio
Government dysfunction sparks doomsday fears
Muddled plan
Disarray among House Republicans caused confusion on Tuesday, with Boehner
having to pull a proposed agreement from the floor because conservatives
found it too weak.
The House proposal dropped some provisions on Obamacare but prohibited
federal subsidies to the President and his administration officials as well
as federal lawmakers and their staff receiving health insurance through the
Affordable Care Act programs.
It also would have forbidden the Treasury from taking what it calls
extraordinary measures to prevent the federal government from defaulting as
cash runs low, in effect requiring hard deadlines to extend the federal debt
ceiling.
House Democrats opposed the GOP proposal, which meant it couldn't pass
without support from the 40 or so tea party conservatives, who wanted more
spending cuts.
"It just kicks the can down the road another six weeks or two months," said
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas.
Stocks: Prepare for a bumpy ride
Time running out
Obama will meet Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who has been
looking for creative ways to cover U.S. financial obligations as the debt
ceiling comes down.
On Tuesday, Obama called for House Republicans to "do what's right" by
reopening government and ensuring the United States can pay its bills. "We
don't have a lot of time," he said.
But he acknowledged Boehner's difficulty in getting his fellow House
Republicans on the same page.
"Negotiating with me isn't necessarily good for the extreme faction in his
caucus," Obama said, referring to the tea party and its conservative allies.
"It weakens him, so there have been repeated situations where we have
agreements. Then he goes back, and it turns out that he can't control his
caucus." | y**********g
发帖数: 2285 | 2 我倒，有人真认为不能达成协议吗
多少次了，哪次不是演戏。
Dana
【在 a*****y 的大作中提到】
: Senate reaches deal to end shutdown, avoid default
: [Breaking news update 12:20 p.m. ET]
: Senate leaders announced on Wednesday that they have reached a deal to end
: the government shutdown and avoid a possible U.S. default.
: [Original story moved at 11:45 a.m. ET]
: Senate leaders on Wednesday worked out a deal to reopen the government and
: avoid a potential U.S. default as soon as midnight, sources told CNN's Dana
: Bash and Ted Barrett.
: Formal announcement of the agreement will come at 12 noon ET on the Senate
: floor, a Republican Senate aide told Bash.
| W********n
发帖数: 72 | 3 美帝这次关门，到底省的多少钱？ 还是一个钱没省，反而浪费了？ | d****o
发帖数: 32610 | 4 Senate说了不算 这次本来就是House弄停的 | g***j
发帖数: 40861 | 5 这次前戏比较长
【在 y**********g 的大作中提到】
: 我倒，有人真认为不能达成协议吗
: 多少次了，哪次不是演戏。
:
: Dana
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