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NEWS ABOUT: debt ceiling

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Boehner Kicks Off New Fight Over Debt

He won't agree to raising ceiling without spending cuts to offset

(Newser) - Remember the nasty fight in DC last summer over the national debt ceiling? Get ready for round two this fall. John Boehner launched the first volley today, demanding at a fiscal summit that any increase in the ceiling be offset by spending cuts, reports the Hill . "When the time... More »

GOP Rolls Out Budget With Huge Tax Cuts

There would be just two brackets, with the top at 25%

(Newser) - House Republicans rolled out a new Paul Ryan-penned budget proposal today that calls for a drastic tax-code overhaul, major changes to Medicare and Medicaid, and deep cuts in domestic spending, all while softening a set of automatic defense spending cuts set to hit in January. The budget would scrap our... More »

The New Obama Gives 'em Hell

Democrats rejoice as president goes on the attack

(Newser) - On Labor Day, Carl Levin gave President Obama the text of a speech by Harry Truman—who won reelection despite a bad economy by attacking Republicans so viciously that he earned the nickname “Give ‘Em Hell Harry.” Ever since, Obama’s been giving Republicans hell, the Washington ... More »

Debt Super Committee an Open Book—for Lobbyists

Influence peddlers get their due

(Newser) - The debt “super committee” tends to meet in secret, won’t disclose its donors or post its documents online, and has turned a deaf ear to calls for greater transparency from good government groups—but it’s an open book to the best connected lobbyists on K Street, Politico... More »

Obama Staffer Slams Krugman, Liberal Bloggers

NM campaign director blasts 'Firebaggers'

(Newser) - President Obama's campaign director in New Mexico has gone on the offensive—against liberals. Ray Sandoval sent supporters an email containing a blog post describing the debt ceiling deal as an "out-and-out win for the president," and blasting Nobel Prize-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and... More »

Political System Isn't Broken —It's Working Perfectly

Krauthammer: It may not be pretty, but that's democracy

(Newser) - Charles Krauthammer today disputes the "endlessly repeated conventional wisdom" that our political system is broken. On the contrary, he writes in the Washington Post , it's working "precisely as designed—profound changes in popular will translated into law that alters the nation’s political direction." For proof,... More »

Obama: We'll Always Be AAA

President addresses downgrade with optimism

(Newser) - Barack Obama did his best to reassure the country after the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US credit rating. S&P pulled the trigger “not so much because they doubt our ability to pay our debt,” Obama explained , but because “they doubted our political system’... More »

Dean: What's the Tea Party Smoking?

GOP blames Obama, Dems blame Tea Party for S&P downgrade

(Newser) - If nothing else, the S&P downgrade made for a lively August Sunday on the talk show circuit, with anyone who is anyone booking an appearance to sling some blame for the US' brand new AA+ rating . The Democrats pointed directly at the Tea Party and its refusal to raise... More »

How the GOP Engineered Its 'Leverage Moment'

GOP radicals captured the party and used default threats to force cuts

(Newser) - Less than 10 days after taking over the House of Representatives in January, majority leader Eric Cantor was already working on using the debt ceiling to force massive spending cuts, reports the Washington Post in a lengthy analysis of how the GOP rebuilt a far-right majority after the drubbings it... More »

S&P: Oh, We Might Downgrade US Again

Worried partisanship will block meaningful debt reform

(Newser) - Standard & Poor's yesterday not only defended its decision to downgrade America's once-vaunted AAA credit rating for the first time, it warned that a second downgrade could be on the way if the US doesn't get its act together. “Compared to some other highly rated governments,... More »

GOP's 'Political Insanity' Caused S&P Downgrade

Downgrade not about numbers as much as GOP extremism

(Newser) - Standard & Poor's downgrade of America's credit rating represents a new factor in America's creditworthiness—"political insanity," writes Edmund Andrews in the National Journal . Indeed, Andrews notes that S&P explicitly cited politics in its downgrade: “The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights... More »

I Apologize for Calling Tea Partiers Terrorists

Joe Nocera: NYT columnist says he went too far

(Newser) - New York Times columnist Joe Nocera took flak for a blistering column in which he compared members of the Tea Party to terrorists, complete with references to jihad and suicide vests. Today, he issues a mea culpa. "I was a hypocrite, the critics said, for using such language when... More »

Washington Needs Ike-Like Calm

Today's politicians have forgotten his lessons: Jim Newton

(Newser) - Coming into office after a series of crises, Dwight Eisenhower knew that part of his job as president was to calm us down. “He set out to project an aura of calm command” and, “through patient and temperate negotiation,” he sought to balance rival factions in the... More »

Poll: We Hate Congress More Than Ever

Approval dives below 20%

(Newser) - The debt ceiling mess has pushed Congress' already dismal approval ratings into the abyss, according to the latest New York Times / CBS poll. Some 82% of Americans don't approve of the way Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating since the Times started asking the question in... More »

Hey, Conservatives: You Want Defense Cuts

Fareed Zakaria on the Pentagon's out of control budget

(Newser) - So let’s get this straight: If Congress can’t agree on another $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, half the cuts will automatically come out of defense spending ? “If so, let the guillotine fall,” declares Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post . This is the kind of... More »

Jon Stewart Assembles the Super Committee

It's 'America's own legion of doofs': Jon Stewart

(Newser) - Imagine Jon Stewart's dismay when he discovered that after months of drama, the debt deal only shaved our deficit from $28.8 trillion to $26.3 trillion at the end of a decade. "That's what this whole f***ing thing was about?" he asked last night . Removing "... More »

No One Wants To Be on Debt 'Super Committee'

Lawmakers say 'not it' as lobbyists chomp at the bit to influence panel

(Newser) - Legislators aren't exactly jumping to volunteer for the 12-man "super committee" created by the debt ceiling deal, which promises to be a thankless and heavily lobbied job, the LA Times reports. “I'm not that much of a glutton for punishment,” says Jon Kyl. “This... More »

Panetta: Debt Deal Trigger Puts America in Danger

$1T in Pentagon cuts 'completely unacceptable'

(Newser) - The Pentagon can't tighten its belt any further without putting America in danger, Leon Panetta warns. The defense secretary says major cuts beyond the $350 billion outlined in the debt ceiling deal are "completely unacceptable" and could do "real damage " to national security, the New York ... More »

It Was Republicans Who Blinked in the Debt Talks

This is actually a decent deal for Obama and Democrats: Yale professor

(Newser) - Conventional wisdom on the left has it that President Obama caved to Tea Party Republicans and gave away too much in the debt ceiling talks. A Yale contracts professor says the opposite is true: "The deal is much nearer an affirmation of the president's core commitments than a... More »

Wash Down 'Satan Sandwich' With 'Demon Drink'

Emanuel Cleaver breaks down his colorful remark

(Newser) - Emanuel Cleaver made quite a stir the other day when he called the debt ceiling deal a “ sugar-coated Satan sandwich ,” but he’s sticking by the remark—and even elaborating on it. In an interview this morning on Morning Joe, the host playfully asked what was in the... More »

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