Week ahead: Washington scrambles ahead of possible default
All eyes are on the U.S. Senate and the financial markets as the nation’s capital begins a turbulent week.
Senate leaders are in talks on a deal to increase the nation’s borrowing limit ahead of Thursday, when the Obama administration says it can no longer guarantee its ability to pay the government’s bills.
A default would have major worldwide effects, and if financial markets start to crash, it could move minds — and votes — in Washington.
The key talks to increase the debt limit and end the two-week government shutdown are between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after House Republicans and the White House broke off talks over the weekend.
Democrats are not inclined to concede much in return for getting the government running and paying its bills, which they view as basic functions. Republicans say they never get important budget course corrections without such deadlines.
In the Senate, Georgia Republicans Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss could be key votes for any deal. They have been in some form of talks with Democrats for years on how to wrangle with the country’s long-term budget deficits.
In the House, Republican Reps. Tom Price of Roswell and Rob Woodall of Lawrenceville could be bellwethers, as they were the only Georgia Republicans to vote for the 2011 deal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for budget cuts.
Meanwhile, any deal is likely to have little effect on the law that started the standoff, the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Tom Graves of Ranger helped rally the most conservative House Republicans to demand the law known as Obamacare be stripped of funding in exchange for keeping the government open.
The demands shifted to a delay in the law’s requirement that all individuals purchase health insurance. But Senate negotiators are now talking about merely delaying the law’s tax on medical devices, a price that will not be enough to woo arch-conservatives — including several from Georgia.
Those include Athens Republican Rep. Paul Broun, who said in a statement Friday: “I will vote against any deal which does not stop Obamacare for all Americans, regardless of any promises made to compromise on the budget, tax reform, or changes to entitlement programs down the road.”
