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Debt talks and little else on Washington’s agenda

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The debt showdown isn’t just the dominant issue

in Washington this summer – it’s virtually the only one getting any

attention in the nation’s capital.

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From the White House to Congress, the negotiations over raising the

U.S. debt limit have overshadowed or halted work on everything from

job creation to the military conflict in Libya to education reform.

And the debt debate has hamstrung President Barack Obama’s ability

to hit the road to campaign and raise money for his re-election

bid.

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The frenetic pace of Washington often means what is news one day

can fade to the background the next. But rarely does a singular

issue suck up so much of the oxygen for such a sustained

period.

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Obama hasn’t traveled outside Washington in July, except for a

weekend jaunt to the presidential retreat at Camp David. Lawmakers

who previously met with the president only sporadically came to the

White House for five straight days of talks, and will likely be

back again before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department has warned

the government will default unless the debt ceiling is raised. The

House and Senate both canceled weeklong breaks planned for this

month so they could stay in town to work on a deal.

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The president has foreshadowed even more debt talk disruptions

through the rest of the summer if lawmakers don’t reach a

compromise.

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“We are not going to let Congress go on August recess – have a one

month vacation – while this problem doesn’t get solved,” Obama said

in a television interview Thursday.

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With the Aug. 2 deadline looming, the all-consuming nature of the

talks is a near-imperative for lawmakers and the

president.

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But because Obama and congressional leaders have essentially

cleared their schedules to focus on the negotiations, other

pressing national priorities are being overshadowed, or shelved

completely until there’s a debt deal.

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The debate over U.S. military involvement in Libya that was so

contentious just last month, for example, has garnered barely a

mention from the White House or Congress in recent weeks. The issue

hasn’t gone away – Republicans and anti-war Democrats still

question Obama’s legal authority to keep the U.S. engaged in the

Libya bombing campaign – but GOP lawmakers have insisted that

dealing with the debt should take precedence.

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The nation’s persistently high unemployment rate did manage to grab

the spotlight briefly last week, after a disastrous report showed

that job growth had nearly stalled. But there is little, if any,

progress being made on legislation that would directly lead to job

creation. Even passage of three key free-trade deals that both

Obama and Republicans say will support jobs in the U.S. has been

stymied by the debt talks, with administration officials putting

some of the blame for the delay in ratifying the agreements on the

tense partisan atmosphere created by the debt ceiling

debate.

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And forget about the overhaul of the controversial No Child Left

Behind education law the administration wanted lawmakers to finish

by the time the school year starts this fall. Congress has made so

little progress that the Education Department warned it’s coming up

with a plan B to give schools relief from the federal mandates if

lawmakers fail to act.

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While Obama continues to be briefed and hold private meetings on

issues unrelated to the debt talks, the White House has limited

Obama’s public appearances during the last week almost exclusively

to news conferences, statements or photo opportunities related to

the negotiations.

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“They’ve made the very realistic and practical judgment that those

other things won’t get attention,” said Tony Fratto, a White House

spokesman under former President George W. Bush.

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Still, Obama said Friday that he knows the American people would

rather see Washington focusing on issues that have more resonance

in their daily lives.

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“We’ve been obsessing over the last couple of weeks about raising

the debt ceiling and reducing the debt and deficit,” he said. “I

tell you what the American people are obsessing about right now is

that unemployment is still way too high and too many folks’ homes

are still underwater, and prices of things that they need, not just

that they want, are going up a lot faster than their paychecks are

if they’ve got a job.”

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But lawmakers from both parties say it would be difficult to

address any of those issues if they can’t get control of the

nation’s debt and prevent a default.

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“All of our guys know this is the moment to do something really

meaningful for the economy and our looming debt crisis,” said

Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. “If this

debate is blocking out the sun, it’s only because the debt problem

is just that large.”

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Lingering just below the surface of the debt debate – and sometimes

bubbling above it – is the fast-approaching 2012 election. As long

as Obama is stuck in Washington working on a deal, he won’t be

traveling to politically important battleground states to sell the

public on his policies or raise campaign funds. That may be a less

serious problem for Obama, who hauled in $86 million for his

re-election campaign and the Democratic Party in the three months

ending June 30. That was more than all his GOP rivals

combined.

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Those rivals, meanwhile, are steadily ramping up their campaigns

and attacks on Obama, while feeling little compulsion to jump into

the contentious and divisive debt debate consuming the

capital.

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Julie Pace can be reached at 

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