Sen. John Barrasso, left, Sen. James Risch during a markup meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee March 21, 2013.(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Senate Republicans (click here) are piecing together a plan to extract more concessions from the White House in exchange for a debt-limit increase, reviving a strategy that took the country toward the brink of default just three months ago.
While the Obama administration is already sounding alarms about the debt ceiling—Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told Congress on Thursday that the country could hit the borrowing limit as soon as February—Republicans appear ready to demand another round of spending cuts, according to lawmakers.
"You can't do these things without getting something in return," said Sen. James Risch, an Idaho Republican. "We're borrowing still over $3 billion a day. This is nonsense. It can't go on."
Republicans will meet behind closed doors early next month to draft the debt-limit strategy and map out other election-year legislative priorities. Part of the meeting, according to lawmakers, will be aimed at finding a way to circumvent Majority Leader Harry Reid's strategy to flatly avoid negotiating on the debt ceiling, which was successful in the last round....
The US House just can't seem to get their act together.
By Frank James
January 14, 2014
...When the House and Senate (click here) appropriations committee chairs announced late Monday evening that they had agreed on how to allocate the $1.012 trillion in federal spending, it was yet another step on the path to regular order that Congress forced itself to return to after years of regular disorder, best symbolized by last year's partial government shutdown.
Another step came Tuesday when the GOP-controlled House approved a three-day funding extension to avoid another shutdown while Congress hashes out the final details of the omnibus appropriations bill (the federal government's current funding expires Wednesday). Regular order lives....
The US House just can't seem to get their act together.
By Frank James
January 14, 2014
...When the House and Senate (click here) appropriations committee chairs announced late Monday evening that they had agreed on how to allocate the $1.012 trillion in federal spending, it was yet another step on the path to regular order that Congress forced itself to return to after years of regular disorder, best symbolized by last year's partial government shutdown.
Another step came Tuesday when the GOP-controlled House approved a three-day funding extension to avoid another shutdown while Congress hashes out the final details of the omnibus appropriations bill (the federal government's current funding expires Wednesday). Regular order lives....
