Boelter pleads guilty in lawmaker attacks, agrees to two life sentences

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Neither the House nor the Senate has a clear
path forward for must-pass legislation to allow the government to
continue to borrow to pay its bills, putting lawmakers and
financial markets alike on edge less than a week before the
deadline for heading off the nation's first-ever default.
      

House Speaker John Boehner was forced late Tuesday to postpone a
floor vote on his plan, which originally had been scheduled for
Wednesday, after nonpartisan congressional scorekeepers said the
proposal would cut spending less than advertised. He promised to
rewrite the measure, but the move means the House can't vote on it
until Thursday at the earliest.
      

Boehner, R-Ohio, needs to do more than pump up the legislation.
He needs to shore up his standing with tea party-backed
conservatives demanding deeper spending cuts to accompany an almost
$1 trillion increase in the government's borrowing cap. Many
conservatives already had promised to oppose it.
      

"We need more drastic cuts," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
"I can't support it in its current form."
      

"I'm searching for a path toward yes but having a difficult
time finding it," said Rep Bill Huizenga, R-Mich.
      

Unless he can wrestle the situation under control, Boehner risks
losing leverage in his dealing with President Barack Obama and
Democrats controlling the Senate.
      

Boehner's plan was not winning converts among some stalwart
conservatives. It prompted Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid to
declare that the bill was destined to fail in the Senate and it
drew a White House veto threat. But it was framing the debate over
how to reduce long-term deficits while raising the debt ceiling.
      

Tuesday's Congressional Budget Office analysis said the GOP
measure would cut the deficit by about $850 billion over 10 years,
not the $1.2 trillion originally promised. Even more embarrassing
was a CBO finding that the measure, which would provide a $900
billion increase in the nation's borrowing cap, would generate just
a $1 billion deficit cut over the coming year.
      

Boehner's plan would couple budget savings gleaned from 10 years
of curbs on agency budgets with a two-track plan for increasing the
government's borrowing cap by up to $2.7 trillion. The first
increase of $900 billion would take effect immediately; the second
increase could be awarded only after the recommendations of a
special bipartisan congressional panel are enacted into law.
      

The White House says Boehner's measure would reopen the delicate
and crucial debt discussions to unending political pressure during
next year's campaigns and risk more uncertainty in the markets.
      

The White House promised to veto Boehner's measure if it were to
reach Obama's desk.
      

It's unlikely to come to that. Reid, D-Nev., promised the
measure would never make it through the Democratic-controlled
Senate.
      

Reid held back on forcing a vote on his competing measure, which
he unveiled Monday to poor reviews from Republicans like Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Reid appears to hope
that his measure, which promises $2.7 trillion in spending cuts and
would increase the debt limit enough to keep the government afloat
past the 2012 elections, could emerge as the last viable option
standing and could be modified with input from Republicans.
      

Those same Republicans blasted Reid's bill for $1 trillion in
war-related savings they say are phony. But McConnell is emerging
as a key figure in the endgame, and he sounded a conciliatory note
in an appearance Tuesday.
      

"We need to get an outcome. And to get an outcome, a Republican
House, a Democratic Senate and a Democratic president would have to
reach an agreement," McConnell said. "So I'm prepared to accept
something less than perfect, because perfect is not achievable."
      

One area of potential compromise could be how to treat the
findings of a bipartisan congressional commission to identify
further deficit reductions, especially in major health care
programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Both Reid and Boehner
support the idea, though Boehner wants to make a future increase in
the debt limit contingent on the proposed additional cuts being
enacted into law.
      

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking down to next Tuesday's deadline
to continue the government's borrowing powers and avert possible
defaults on U.S. loans and obligations, like $23 billion worth of
Social Security payments due Aug. 3. The Capitol's telephones were
jammed after Obama urged the public to contact their
representatives in his Monday night address.
      

Conservative bloggers and groups like the Club for Growth, which
funds primary campaigns against Republicans it deems too squishy in
their conservatism, denounced Boehner's bill as too weak. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, closer to the GOP mainstream, urged support.
      

While Boehner searched for votes, some Americans seemed to edge
closer to the notion that the Aug. 2 deadline might pass without a
solution. The stock market fell again, although not dramatically.
California planned to borrow about $5 billion from private
investors as a hedge against a possible federal government default.
      

The White House spoke with veterans groups about what might
happen to their benefits if a deal isn't reached. Obama has said he
can't guarantee Social Security checks and payments to veterans and
the disabled would go out on schedule.
      

Freshman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., bristled at the idea that tea
party-influenced newcomers are sheep-like ideologues willing to
risk default.
      

"We're not a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing
Neanderthals," Gowdy said. "We're interested in answering what we
perceive to be the mandate, which is to stop the spending and
change the way Washington handles money."
      

Gowdy said he was leaning against Boehner's proposal.
      

Gallery

Politics and Government News

The House of Representatives Tuesday postponed an expected Wednesday vote on a Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling after budget experts said it would not deliver the spending cuts it claimed.

Boehner rewriting debt limit plan as clock ticks

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