WSJ/NYT/WP On Sunday Senate Democrats go on offensive "reverse the sequester"

[grantcart]

Last Monday I predicted that nothing would happen until the DJI hit 14199:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023751580

This Morning I said that the strategy would be Deadlock Sunday, Sell off Monday, Clear CR Tuesday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023840286

Now in an obvious and organized leak to the three main pillars of the establishment press Democratic Senators have indicated that Sunday was not only deadlocked but in fact the Democrats have gone on the offensive and want Sequestering cuts done away with.

Tomorrow is a holiday but the markets are open. Conventional thinking by the talking heads is that light trading and not much will happen. Light trading also means that if there are aggressive sellers and no buyers that the indexes will sink, and fast. even or especially in light traffic. If they think they have a day to get their profits out, it will accelerate.

It seems to me that the Democrats are willing to apply the kerosene.

This will lead to a near unanimous Senate resolution for a long term fix.

The House will have to bring it to the floor and 50 Republicans will use the cover of the markets and the Senate to pass the legislation WITHOUT AMENDMENT.

These tactics will never be used again.

No negotiation, no compromise and no fig leaf.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023840286

[font color="blue" size="15" face="face"]WSJ: Senate Democrats Press New Front in Budget Battle[/font]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304106704579133413166676506

WASHINGTON—Senate leaders attempting to avoid a U.S. debt default remained at loggerheads Sunday and escalated the standoff by reopening the contentious issue of automatic spending cuts, damping hopes that some of Congress's most canny negotiators would break the impasse.

As the search for a way to end the partial federal shutdown and avoid a debt crisis shifted to the Senate, Democrats made plain that one of their top priorities was to diminish the next round of across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, due to take effect early next year.

Many Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), oppose retreating from those cuts. That set up a clash that seemed almost as intense as the one that caused budget talks between House Republicans and President Barack Obama to collapse Friday.

[font color="blue" size="15" face="face"]NYT: Spending Dispute Leaves a Senate Deal Elusive[/font]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/us/politics/budget-and-debt-limit-debate.html?hp&_r=1&

WASHINGTON — With a possible default on government obligations just days away, Senate Democratic leaders — believing they have a political advantage in the continuing fiscal impasse — refused Sunday to sign on to any deal that reopens the government but locks in budget cuts for next year.

The disagreement extended the stalemate that has kept much of the government shuttered for two weeks and threatens to force a federal default.

The core of the dispute is about spending, and how long a stopgap measure that would reopen the government should last. Democrats want the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration to last only through mid-November; Republicans want them to last as long as possible.

[font color="blue" size="15" face="face"]WP: Senate leaders’ talks on shutdown, debt limit stall as sides await market’s reaction[/font]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-leaders-begin-to-negotiate-as-other-efforts-to-end-impasse-crumble/2013/10/13/498f4202-341a-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html?hpid=z1

What started as a mad dash to strike a deal to lift the federal debt limit slowed to a crawl over the weekend as stalemated Senate leaders waited nervously to see whether financial markets would plunge Monday morning and drive the other side toward compromise.

Republicans seemed to think they had more to lose. After talks broke down between President Obama and House leaders, GOP senators quickly cobbled together a plan to end the government shutdown — now entering its third week — and raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) then asked Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to elevate negotiations to the highest level.


On Sunday — with the Treasury Department due to exhaust its borrowing power in just four days — Reid was wielding that leverage to maximum advantage. Rather than making concessions that would undermine Obama’s signature health-care initiative, as Republicans first demanded, Democrats are now on the offensive and seeking to undo what has become a cherished prize for the GOP: deep agency spending cuts known as the sequester.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Up the ante Dems...lets go all in!

Lets see what these jokers have for cards...I'll bet...nothing.

[grantcart]

3. Especially since the hostage they are holding are their

own relatives.

Everyone gets hurt but it is the rich that will see their assets vanish if the market sinks.

One of the downsides of having such a hyper concentration of stocks in a few hands.

[Dawson Leery]

5. +1

[ProSense]

2. Dems should do what Elizabeth Warren did

talk up the fact that Democrats already passed a budget that ends the sequester: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023842041

[grantcart]

6. Ironically I posted a similar thread last week in EW group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1265822

quoting/following EW and you will not go wrong.

[RainDog]

4. k&r n/t

[grantcart]

8. Tks

[NYC_SKP]

7. Recommended. (nt)

[grantcart]

13. tks

[IrishAyes]

9. That sounds even better than what I thought you meant at first, from original link.

I'd like to see the present sequesters rolled back too. In fact I'd like to see the whole GOP crowd of traitors rolled back into the ocean and the deep blue sea.

[grantcart]

10. well we probably aren't going to get that

we probably will go back to the deal exactly as it was already agreed to.

that will show them that the tactic they chose had no benefit.

[Cha]

17. I hope so grant..

It's been awful for so many.. wondering if we're going to be able to receive our SS Checks that we've put our whole lives into.

Those checks as we know.. pay for housing and food and whatever else a person needs to survive.

[backscatter712]

11. Good! Looks like the Dems caught the teabaggers by the short and curlies!

Now we can get real progress, or the subhuman scumfucks will be singing soprano.

[sheshe2]

12. Kicked and Recommending!

[SunSeeker]

14. K & R

[TomCADem]

15. The MSM Seems To Think That Only Republicans Can Demand Concessions

They accept as gospel that taxes are off the table, yet they let Republicans repeatedly insist that Democrats are refusing to negotiate. Well, now that Democrats are asking for corresponding concessions, why are Republicans afraid to negotiate?

[grantcart]

16. Hey those hostages? Turned out to be your wife

and kids and they are at our place.

Remember when Boehner said everything is on the table?

let's talk about increasing revenues and closing tax loopholes and taking away corporate welfare.

let's talk.

no need to hurt all of your good good friends and devalue their stocks, is there?


Hey this is fun.

[Hekate]

18. KnR, grantcart

[Voice for Peace]

19. I thought the leaf WAS on the fig. Can't have it both ways.

great post.. let's see what happens

[grantcart]

20. lol

[BumRushDaShow]

21. It would be nice to be able to take the debt ceiling

completely out of the equation in any agreement per this -

[font size="1"]Back when Congress enacted the statutory debt limit in 1917, it was arguably a useful device for Congress to prevent the president from spending however much he pleased. But since 1974, Congress has created a formal budget process to control spending levels. The debt ceiling doesn't do anything to determine the level of spending. It only allows the Treasury Department to pay for bills Congress has already racked up.[/font]

Abolishing the debt ceiling could take two forms. One would be to restore the old Gephardt Rule, named for former House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt. Under that rule, the debt ceiling increased automatically when Congress passed its budget—a perfectly logical setup. The Republicans repealed the Gephardt rule in 2011, when they took power. Reinstating it could be part of whatever agreement ends the current impasse. The other possibility would be to enshrine, permanently, the arrangement Mitch McConnell developed for raising the debt ceiling last time. It became known as the McConnell rule. As Norman Ornstein, the American Enterprise Institute congressional scholar, recently explained:

[font size="1"]The 'McConnell Rule,' as it was called, allowed the president unilaterally to extend the debt limit, while also providing for a congressional resolution of disapproval. If both houses of Congress disapproved of the president’s action, the resolution would be sent to the president. He could veto it—but it would take two-thirds of both houses of Congress to override his veto.[/font]

In principle, making the McConnell rule permanent should appeal to both the president and his political adversaries. Obama wouldn’t have to worry about debt ceiling crises anymore, while Republicans would get to keep taking votes castigating Democrats for borrowing money. Of course, Republicans would be giving up the ability to use the debt ceiling as a negotiating ploy. But if the polls are right, the ploy doesn’t actually work. Getting rid of the debt ceiling would take a political gun out of Republican hands—and save them from turning it on themselves.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115155/debt-ceiling-remedy-abolish-it-gephardt-or-mcconnell-rules