Congress agrees to steal trillions more from the American people!
WASHINGTON (PNN) - August 1, 2011 - On Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Senate voted not to advance Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's bill, which would raise the debt ceiling and cut spending and the federal deficit on Sunday afternoon.
The deal, negotiated primarily by Vice President Joseph Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.), teetered all day on the edge of completion, as House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) bickered with Democrats over whether to freeze defense spending next year.
In the end, Boehner conceded the point and illegitimate President Obama finalized the agreement with phone calls to each of the four congressional leaders shortly after 8:00 pm.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) issued a statement expressing his support for the emerging framework, which would effectively avert another grueling battle over the debt limit until after the 2012 presidential elections. But the proposal would make no explicit provision to raise taxes, which Democrats had sought.
In an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, McConnell sketched the outlines of the developing deal, which would raise the debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion in two stages. The first increase would total $900 billion, aides said, with the Treasury gaining access to $400 billion in additional borrowing authority immediately upon congressional passage of the deal. The other $500 billion would come later this fall, unless two-thirds of the members of both chambers of Congress objected.
The second increase would hike the debt limit by at least $1.2 trillion, also subject to a similar resolution of congressional disapproval. This provision would place the entire burden for a debt-limit increase on the White House and Democrats, since Republicans would be expected to object but not in numbers large enough to stop the ceiling from being raised.
Programs for the poor, including Medicaid and Social Security, would be exempted. But Medicare payments to providers could be hit.
