Reid seeks long-term extension, Boehner pushes six-month plan

 

If you're sick and tired of this debt-limit B.S. and want it to go away until 2013, then Harry Reid has got a plan for you:

Mr. Reid, the Senate?s top Democrat, was trying on Sunday to cobble together a plan to raise the government?s debt limit by $2.4 trillion through the 2012 elections, with spending cuts of about $2.7 trillion that would not touch any of the entitlement programs that are dear to Democrats or raise taxes, which is anathema to Republicans.

(Note that this sounds pretty much like the plan Nancy Pelosi floated on Friday: No entitlements would be cut and roughly $1 trillion of the cuts plan would come from winding down our two wars. Another $500 billion would come from interest savings.)

On the other hand, if you just love these kinds of knock-out, drag-down political fights, and want to do it all over again six months from now (with a fight over the FY12 spending bill sandwiched in between), then John Boehner is your best friend:

The contours of Mr. Boehner?s backup plan were not entirely clear, but it seemed likely to take the form of a two-step process, with about $1 trillion in cuts, an amount the Republicans said was sufficient to clear the way for a debt limit increase through year?s end. That would be followed by future cuts guided by a new legislative commission that would consider a broader range of trims, program overhauls and revenue increases.

?The preferable path would be a bipartisan plan that involves all the leaders, but it is too early to decide whether that?s possible,? Mr. Boehner said in a ?Fox News Sunday? interview. ?If that?s not possible, I and my Republican colleagues in the House are prepared to move on our own.?

Finally, if what you really want is a clean extension of the debt limit, then probably your only hope is that Boehner carries out his threat to "move on our own." If that happens, we're going to run smack into the debt ceiling, and President Obama will be forced to choose between the laws Congress has passed that mandate spending and the law Congress has passed limiting the debt, and the best thing for the economy will be to simply ignore the debt limit.

But keep in mind that even if that scenario, the relief from Republican hostage-taking would only be temporary: this fiscal year expires at the end of AugustSeptember. And that means a repeat of last April's budget fight is just 67 days away.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/0TkGW9dVgp8/-Reid-seeks-long-term-extension,-Boehner-pushes-six-month-plan

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