In case you think it's a good thing that the Senate will wait one more day before voting on its version of the debt ceiling fiasco, this New York Times report about talks between Vice President Biden and Senate Majority Leader McConnell might give you pause:
The deal they were discussing, this person said, resembled the bill that Mr. Boehner won approval for in the House on Friday more than it did the one that Mr. Reid had proposed.
It would immediately raise the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion, accompanied by a similar range of spending cuts, and set up a new bipartisan committee that would work to find deeper cuts in exchange for a second debt limit increase that would extend through the 2012 election.
In other words, the Democrats apparently haven't gone far enough in abdicating the economic paradigm that has defined the Democratic Party since the Great Depression. There is more to give. More to give between now and tomorrow and more to give once the bipartisan committee convenes.
A failure of the new committee to win enactment of its proposal could then set off automatic spending cuts across the board, including to entitlement programs. Other ideas were swirling around the Capitol as lawmakers searched for a way to avoid default. One of Mr. Reid’s top lieutenants said he saw at least a glimmer of hope.
Got that? All the Republicans would have to do is to make it impossible to enact the committee's proposal, and then we would get across the board cuts, including to entitlements. Notice what apparently isn't part of the deal? Rescinding the Bush/Obama tax cuts. Grover Norquist and Pete Peterson are winning. Because no one is fighting them.
Mark Sumner is right: call your Senators and Congressional representatives and tell them to vote on a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling, with no strings attached. Tell them nothing else is acceptable. Call.
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