Lew urges debt limit hike
The nation’s debt limit must be raised by Oct. 17 to avoid a potential default, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew told congressional leaders Wednesday in setting a firmer deadline for lawmakers to break a stalemate. He urged Congress to “act immediately” to raise the $16.7 trillion borrowing limit or risk “catastrophic” results. Setting a specific date could help force action by lawmakers, who often wait until the last minute on highly controversial legislation. President Barack Obama has refused to negotiate over the issue, saying the debt limit must be raised as it has been dozens of times in the past to pay for spending Congress has already authorized. But many Republicans are pushing for major concessions in a debt-limit deal, including deep spending cuts. Some want to make a debt limit increase contingent on a delay or defunding of Obama’s health care law.
Los Angeles Times
Polls find split over health law funding
A pair of polls showed the public was split over whether to defund the health care law as part of a budget agreement. Both the Pew Research Center and Gallup polls showed that majorities of Americans favor compromise. In the Gallup survey, 53 percent said it was more important for political leaders to compromise in order to get things done, more than double the 25 percent who said it was more important for leaders to stick to their beliefs. The preference for compromise over rigidity held across ideological groups and among both independents and Democrats. Republicans and those who said they supported the tea party, however, split evenly between the two approaches. The Pew finding focused specifically on this budget fight and “lawmakers who share your views.” It showed that 87 percent of people who identify themselves as tea party Republicans support the House-passed budget measure defunding the health care law. That’s 26 percentage points higher than non-tea party Republicans.
Associated Press
After a marathon day and night of talking, the Senate took steps Wednesday toward a budget plan that would keep the government open past a Monday night deadline while maintaining funding for the new health care law.
The move toward Senate approval of a short-term spending plan came after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sat down at noon, ending a 21-hour, 19-minute talkathon that protested continued funding of the health care law. Despite his efforts, the Senate voted 100-0 to move ahead with debate on the budget plan.
Legislation passed by the Republican-controlled House last week would cancel all funds for the law, preventing its full implementation. But Senate Democrats have enough votes to restore the funds as part of their budget plan, and Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada labeled Cruz’s turn in the spotlight “a big waste of time.”
The final vote by the Senate should come no later than Sunday, which then would send the plan back to the House. The House would have to decide whether to agree to keep the government and the health care law funded at least for a few months or shut down parts of the government to try to force Democrats to accept some changes or delays to the Affordable Care Act.
The issue is coming to the forefront in Congress as the Obama administration prepares to launch the health law’s final major piece, a season of enrollment beginning Tuesday for millions who will seek coverage on so-called insurance exchanges.
Republicans contend that the legislation is causing employers to defer hiring new workers, lay off existing ones and reduce the hours of others to hold down costs as they try to ease the impact of the bill’s taxes and other requirements.
“Obamacare is destroying jobs. It is driving up health care costs. It is killing health benefits. It is shattering the economy,” said Cruz.
Topsy, a search engine that’s a preferred partner of Twitter, calculated on its website during the day that there had been about 200,000 tweets containing the words “Ted Cruz” in the previous day.
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Even with the 100-0 vote, the legislation faces several hurdles that must be overcome as both houses and lawmakers in both parties work to avoid a partial shutdown next Tuesday.
The struggle over restoring funds for the health care law is by far the most contentious unresolved issue.
Senate Democrats also want to increase funding for federal firefighting efforts without making offsetting cuts to other programs. The House-passed bill provides $636 million for the program, but includes reductions elsewhere to avoid raising the deficit.
To avoid a partial government shutdown, a single, agreed-upon version must be approved by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama by Tuesday. Officials pointed out that there is still time for the Senate to restore the funds for the health care law — and for the House to seek a more modest overhaul concession, perhaps a one-year delay in the requirement for individuals to purchase coverage or the repeal of a tax on medical devices that many Democrats oppose.
If the events themselves were complicated, the political maneuvering was no less so.
At least temporarily, they pitted Cruz and his tea party allies inside Congress and out against the party establishment, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the Senate GOP leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Little more than a week ago, conservatives in the House rank and file forced Boehner and other leaders to include the defunding provision on legislation required to avoid a shutdown, despite their concerns that it would set the party up for failure.
Within hours after the measure cleared the House, Cruz infuriated his allies by virtually conceding he wouldn’t have the votes to prevail in the Senate. He said, “At that point, House Republicans must stand firm, hold their ground and continue to listen to the American people.”
Cruz appeared at a news conference the next day to proclaim he would do “everything and anything possible to defund Obamacare,” including a possible filibuster of legislation to prevent a shutdown.
When he began his remarks Tuesday, he vowed to speak in opposition until “I am no longer able to stand.”
Nearly 24 hours later, he offered to shorten the time it would take to debate the measure and voted along with Republicans and Democrats alike to send it over its first hurdle.
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