Senate stalls bi-partisan debt ceiling deal to end government shutdown
Published time: October 12, 2013 19:02
With only five days left to a possible default, there is yet no unity in the US senate with Republicans and Democrats rejecting each other’s proposal to end the 12-day-old government shutdown.
On Saturday the focus of efforts to end the shutdown shifted to the Senate, where the two sides held negotiations in a bid to resolve the stalemate. However, the talks yielded no agreement.
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The US Senate Republicans rejected a Democratic plan to raise the debt ceiling through 2014 without making any cuts or changes to Obamacare. Voting 53 against and 45 in favor, Republicans, who want the extension to be accompanied by spending cuts, blocked the bill, which needed at least 60 votes to overcome the objections.
The move was followed by Senate Democratic leaders’ opposition to Republican proposal to end the fiscal stalemate.
Rejecting an offer by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to end the budget impasse, Democrats argued that her offer asks for too much in return for too little, the POLITICO cited senators and aides.
The so-called Collins plan, which has bipartisan support, offered a six-month extension of government funding and an increase in the government's borrowing limit through January. It was also calling for a two-year delay on Obamacare's medical device tax as well requiring income verification for Americans seeking subsidies for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Democrats say a new medical device tax that would raise $30 billion over 10 years for the President's healthcare law.
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POLITICO
Focus on Senate after Obama rejects House plan
Speaker John Boehner told House Republicans Saturday morning that
his efforts to strike a deal with President Barack Obama are at a
standstill.
There is no agreement, Boehner said in a room in the Capitol Saturday, and there are no negotiations between House Republicans and the White House, since Obama rejected the speaker’s effort to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks and reopen government while setting up a budget negotiating process.
After the news that talks between Boehner and Obama have broken down, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emerged on the floor to emphasize that the nation’s eyes are firmly fixed on the chamber.
“I was happy to see the Republicans engaged in talks with the president, the House Republicans. That’s over with. It’s done. They’re not talking anymore,” Reid said. “I say to my friends on the Republican side of this Senate, time is running out.”
House Republicans are, for the first time, acknowledging that reality. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the closed meeting of GOP lawmakers that, “Senate Republicans need to stand strong and fight,” according to sources in the room.
There is no agreement, Boehner said in a room in the Capitol Saturday, and there are no negotiations between House Republicans and the White House, since Obama rejected the speaker’s effort to lift the debt ceiling for six weeks and reopen government while setting up a budget negotiating process.
With that, a familiar dynamic has resurfaced 12 days
into the government shutdown and five days before Treasury says the
nation runs out of borrowing authority: The pendulum has swung back to
Senate Republicans, who now look more likely to cut a deal with Obama to
end the first government shutdown since 1996, and avoid the first
default on U.S. debt in history.
(Also on POLITICO: Democrats reject Susan Collins proposal)After the news that talks between Boehner and Obama have broken down, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) emerged on the floor to emphasize that the nation’s eyes are firmly fixed on the chamber.
“I was happy to see the Republicans engaged in talks with the president, the House Republicans. That’s over with. It’s done. They’re not talking anymore,” Reid said. “I say to my friends on the Republican side of this Senate, time is running out.”
House Republicans are, for the first time, acknowledging that reality. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the closed meeting of GOP lawmakers that, “Senate Republicans need to stand strong and fight,” according to sources in the room.
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