Things seem, maybe, possibly heading towards some sort of debt ceiling deal negotiated by Mitch McConnell directly with the White House. Harry Reid just took to the floor of the Senate to announce that the vote on cloture on his bill will be postponed from 1 a.m. until noon 1 p.m. Sunday.
Reid said that this delay was at the request of the White House, to give negotiations more time.
On the assumption that some agreement is reached — and it was inevitable that would be the case regardless of scenario — the details will be all important particularly since the deal is likely to have mechanisms for further budget cuts. In order to make sure we are not “snookered,” as some predict we will be, we need time to review the bill before there are votes in the House and Senate.
Republicans long have pledged to give voters 72 hours to read final legislation. Assuming that agreement were reached by Tuesday, why not pass a one week debt ceiling increase while the public gets a chance to review the language of the bill?
We shouldn’t have to pass another bill in order to find out what’s in it. So will we have 72 hours to read the final bill?
Update 11:30 p.m.: ABC News is reporting and the White House is denying a tentative deal:
ABC News has learned that Republicans and the White House have struck a tenative deal to raise the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. It’s not done yet, but here is the framework of the tentative deal they have worked out, according to a source familiar with the negotiations:•Debt ceiling increase of up to $2.8 trillion•Spending cuts of roughly $1 trillion•Vote on the Balanced Budget Amendment•Special committee to recommend cuts of $1.8 trillion (or whatever it takes to add up to the total of the debt ceiling increase)•Committee must make recommendations before Thanksgiving recess•If Congress does not approve those cuts by late December, automatic across-the-board cuts go into effect, including cuts to Defense and Medicare.A senior White House aide pushed back against the idea that a deal was struck.”Talks continue, but there is no deal to report,” the aide said.
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