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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional leaders worked
Monday to align lawmakers from both parties behind their formula
for averting a financial meltdown and halting the government’s
prolific spending habits. Despite resistance from both liberals and
conservatives, momentum appeared to be building in support of the
compromise deficit-reduction plan.
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In an apparent show of confidence, leaders in the House said they
planned to bring the plan to the floor for a vote Monday afternoon.
Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said there would
be an hour of debate before moving to a vote.
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In the Senate, where one senator can hold up action, Majority
Leader Harry Reid said he was hoping to get agreement to allow a
vote Monday evening. “We need to send this to President Obama as
soon as we can.”
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A member of the Republican leadership in the Senate predicted at
least 30 GOP votes. “Maybe 35 will support it in the end. There
will be some who will pull back,” Sen. Mike Crapo, the deputy
Republican whip, told reporters, as climactic votes approached in
both the House and Senate on the long-sought spending
plan.
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Leaders in both chambers were meeting with their rank-and-file to
promote the package, and President Barack Obama sent out a video
message to sell Democrats on the plan. “This has been a long and
messy process,” he said. “As with any compromise, the outcome is
far from satisfying.”
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Obama was also doing debt-related tweeting. “The debt agreement
makes a significant down payment to reduce the deficit – finding
savings in both defense and domestic spending,” he said in
one.
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“We’ll know over the next two to three hours,” said House freshman
Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., when asked if House Speaker John Boehner had
the votes in the House, where conservatives have been more
resistant to the compromise.
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Reid opened the day’s session in the Senate by declaring the deal
shows that the often-dysfunctional Senate can come together when it
counts. “People on the right are upset, people on the left are
upset, people in the middle are upset,” he said. “It was a
compromise.”
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Crapo’s assessment came as Vice President Joe Biden, who played an
instrumental role in successful weekend efforts to hammer out an
accord, went to Capitol Hill to sell the plan in separate meetings
with House and Senate Democrats.
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Relief around the world was indisputable, with Asian shares on
Monday enjoying one of the best sessions in weeks. The advance
continued in Europe. Wall Street opened higher, but faltered on a
report that a key manufacturing index had dropped sharply in
July.
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Whatever momentum could be claimed for the deficit-reduction plan,
Congress still has precious little time to avert a potentially
devastating default on U.S. obligations. And there was little
dispute that the endgame product contained plenty to offend
lawmakers of both parties, and tea party sympathizers as
well.
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Sen. John McCain conceded as much, saying he’d have to “swallow
hard” to vote for it because of cuts in defense spending. But the
Arizona Republican said lawmakers had little choice in the face of
the specter of default.
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Fellow Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he was a no
vote. “Simply stated, it locks us into more debt, bigger government
and most devastating of all, a weakened defense infrastructure at a
time when we face growing threats.”
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Another House Republican, Michael Turner of Ohio said he was not
ready to endorse the package as he left a closed-door meeting of
House GOP lawmakers. Turner is a member of the House Armed Services
Committee, and potential cuts to defense spending could be an issue
among some Republicans.
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Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine, said she was
undecided because of concerns about cuts to rural hospitals and
home health care as well as defense. “I want to avoid the kind of
hollowed-out military we saw after Vietnam,” she said.
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The compromise plan agreed to late Sunday would mix a record
increase in the government’s borrowing cap with the promise of more
than $2 trillion in spending cuts.
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Democratic votes are certain to be needed to pass the measure in
the Republican-dominated House, just as Republicans will be needed
to clear the measure through the Democratic Senate. Liberal
Democrats were already complaining that Obama had given away too
much to GOP leaders.
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Rep. Elliot Engel, a liberal Democrat from New York, said he was
leaning no because the plan could lead to cuts to Medicare and
other benefit programs. Boehner should get the votes from his
majority Republicans, Engel said. “I don’t think we’re under any
obligation to support this package.”
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“Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No,” Obama said.
“But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the
deficit reduction we need, and gives each party a strong incentive
to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year.”
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The legislation would slice more than $2 trillion from federal
spending over a decade and permit the nation’s $14.3 trillion
borrowing cap to rise by up to $2.4 trillion, enough to keep the
government afloat through the 2012 elections – a key objective for
Obama, whose poll numbers have sagged as the summertime crisis
dragged on.
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John Boehner, R-Ohio, telephoned Obama at mid-evening to say the
agreement had been struck, then immediately began pitching the deal
to his fractious rank and file.
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“It isn’t the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much
we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town,” he said on a
conference call, according to GOP officials. He added the agreement
was “all spending cuts. The White House bid to raise taxes has been
shut down.”
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House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was publicly
noncommittal. “I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my
caucus to see what level of support we can provide,” Pelosi said in
a written statement. But Democratic officials said she was unlikely
to do anything to try to scuttle the package.
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“This deal trades people’s livelihoods for the votes of a few
unappeasable right-wing radicals, and I will not support it,” said
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz.
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Tea party favorite and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann,
R-Minn., countered that the deal “spends too much and doesn’t cut
enough. … Someone has to say no. I will.”
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The government presently borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar
it spends, and without an infusion of borrowing authority, the
government would face an unprecedented default on U.S. loans and
obligations – like $23 billion worth of Social Security pension
payments to retirees due Aug. 3.
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The increased borrowing authority includes $400 billion that would
take effect immediately and $500 billion that Obama could order
unless specifically denied by Congress. That $900 billion increase
in the debt cap would be matched by savings produced over the
coming decade by capping spending on day-to-day agency budgets
passed by Congress each year.
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A special bipartisan committee would be established to find up to
$1.5 trillion in deficit cuts, probably taken from benefit programs
like farm subsidies, Medicare and the Medicaid health care program
for the poor and disabled. Republicans dismissed the idea that the
panel would approve tax increases.
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Any agreement by the panel would be voted on by both House and
Senate – and if the panel deadlocked, automatic spending cuts would
slash across much of the federal budget. Social Security, Medicaid
and food stamps would be exempt from the automatic cuts, but
payments to doctors, nursing homes and other Medicare providers
could be trimmed, as could subsidies to insurance companies that
offer an alternative to government-run Medicare.
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Top Obama aide Plouffe said in a morning network television
interview that the administration wasn’t giving up on pushing for
new tax revenues down the road.
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“The only way to really reduce the deficits significantly in a
smart way is to make sure there is smart entitlement reform and
closing of loopholes and tax reform,” he said.
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But Republicans set the parameters of the debate, with Boehner
successfully winning spending cuts equaling the amount of the debt
increase – though the cuts phase in over time and future Congresses
will have ample temptation to find ways around stringent spending
caps called for in the pact.
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Obama said such appropriated accounts would be left with the lowest
levels of spending as a percentage of the overall economy in more
than a half-century.
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In the end, the deal was a split-the-differences compromise, with
plenty for both sides to dislike. House GOP defense hawks came out
on the losing end. So too did Democratic liberals seeking tax
increases.
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Plouffe was interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “The
Early Show” and NBC’s “Today” show. McCain appeared on
CBS.
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