J*V
发帖数: 3150 | 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.
GOP rep.: Oct. 17 not drop dead date Manchin: A deal can happen in Senate
Cutter to King: This is a fool's errand Senate women push to end D.C.
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.
Military cemeteries closed around world Veterans plead for government to re
-open Debt ceiling deadline's effects Richard Quest explains the debt
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 |
|
