Motley Moose – Archive

Waiting for the someone to take the ball and run with it.

UPDATE Wednesday, 10/16 at 10:20pm Eastern:

House votes to reopen government and raise debt ceiling:

The bill passed 285-144; 144 Republicans voted against it. The Senate had previously passed the bill 81-18. It now heads to the White House, where President Obama has said he would sign it.

Upon Obama’s signature, the first government shutdown in 17 years will end after 16 days.

UPDATE Wednesday, 10/16 at 5pm Eastern:

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH): “… blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by the members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us.”

Chamber of Commerce: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced Wednesday that it supports the new Senate plan to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, and it will include the measure as a key vote.

Clown King Ted Cruz (R-TX): Cruz told a gaggle of reporters that he has “no objections” to the Senate holding a vote

The much ballyhooed Senate bill (re-open the government until January 15th, raise the debt ceiling through February 15th, conference on budget) which was  to be voted on and sent to the House of Representatives was held after the House floated their “counteroffer”: a bill festooned with poison pills ornaments including big sloppy kisses to the Catholic bishops and medical device lobbyists.

The White House was quick to reject what it called the latest “ransom demand” (take that whiney White House reporters!!) and the ball is back in the Senate’s court.

This afternoon President Obama and Vice President Biden will meet with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. The Fitch warning will likely be one of the topics:

“Fitch continues to believe that an agreement will be reached to end the current political impasse and raise the U.S. debt ceiling,” the agency said in a press release. “Even if the debt limit is not raised before or shortly after 17 October, we assume there is sufficient political will and capacity to ensure that Treasury securities will continue to be honoured in full and on time.”

While Fitch said that it remained confident Congress would ultimately reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling ahead of the Oct. 17 deadline, future ratings of U.S. holdings would be dependant on the “manner and duration of the agreement and the perceived risk of a similar episode occurring in the future.”

Translation: “We are looking around desperately to see if there are enough adults in Congress to justify our belief that the United States is credit worthy”.

The rough parameters appear to be as follows:

– Government reopened with a continuing resolution that runs through January 15th when the next round of sequester cuts is scheduled to take effect.

– Clean debt ceiling increase through February 15th.

– Budget conference will meet with a deadline of mid-December to come up with a budget.

There are rumors that some concessions related to the Affordable Care Act are in the mix and possibly limitations on extraordinary measures that Treasury can take the next time we approach the debt ceiling.

This morning Senate Republicans will meet at 9am Eastern to consider the deal.

Senate leadership is looking for unanimous consent to get the bill to the House quickly because the government can no longer borrow money to pay its obligations as of Thursday. Emperor Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has not yet decided if he will allow the Senate to vote.

House leadership has been silent. Some individual House members have said that they think there aren’t 20 Republican votes for such a deal and there is still the Cantor Rule to overcome.

Dare we hope?

We stand on verge of re-opening govt and avoiding default. In your face Brokaw for history will know us as truly The Greatest Generation.

— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) October 14, 2013

Obama Invites Hill Leaders To Talk Debt Limit

President Barack Obama invited Congressional leaders to the White House to discuss raising the federal debt limit on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. The meeting will take place at 5:30pm ET.

The Treasury Department announced Tuesday it was executing final emergency measures before it must raise the debt ceiling on Oct. 17. House Republicans are considering merging negotiations on the debt limit with a continuing resolution to re-open the shuttered government.

Here is what America’s Leaders look like:



People of color. Check. Women. Check. Token (ha!) old white guys. Check.

Yesterday, Eric Cantor tweeted that he was ready to negotiate and had his team in place. This is what Republican Leaders look like:



Old white guys in $4,000 suits. Check.

President Obama wants a clean debt limit increase and a clean Continuing Resolution. The only thing we know for sure is that the Affordable Care Act is not a bargaining chip.

Beyond The Shutdown, There’s A Bigger Battle Brewing

Congress has to raise the limit on the amount of money the federal government is allowed to borrow by Oct. 17. If the debt ceiling is not raised on time, President Obama warns that Washington won’t be able to keep paying its bills.

“It’d be far more dangerous than a government shutdown, as bad as a shutdown is,” Obama said Tuesday. “It would be an economic shutdown.”

No one is exactly sure what would happen if the government suddenly had to make do without a credit card. But experts agree that the fallout could be scary and far-reaching.

While government shutdowns are messy and disruptive, the country has lived through them before. The U.S. government, on the other hand, has never had to go cold turkey on borrowed money.

The much ballyhooed “GOP civil war” turned out to be 6 guys with rusted flintlocks as the Republican House terrorists voted to send the Continuing Resolution bill to keep the government funded back to the Senate with more Obamacare hostage-taking amendments. The Senate rejected that bill, demanding a clean CR.

House “leadership” met to hatch a plan to send the amendment festooned CR to conference:

UPDATE September 30, 10:53 p.m. ET:

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s office issued the following whip alert announcing a late-night vote on the above plan:

   The House will follow regular order and consider a rule that adopts a motion insisting on our last amendment and requesting a conference with the Senate. This will send the CR, our amendment, and our request for a conference back to the Senate.

WaPo – update 11:20 p.m. ET:

The House Rules Committee just voted to approve House GOP leaders’ plan for a conference committee, but it did so without Democratic support.

The vote was 7-4 along party lines, according to committee chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refused to entertain the conference committee plan:

“We will not go to conference with a gun to our head,” Reid said late Monday night on the Senate floor. “The first thing the House has to do is pass a clean six-week C.R. They have that before them they can do that right now.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Senate Budget Committee Chair, via TPM:

After blocking Senate Democrats’ attempts to start a budget conference 18 times over the past six months, Republicans are now scrambling to start a conference committee with mere minutes to go before a government shutdown. This is just the latest absurd and desperate attempt by Speaker Boehner to delay the inevitable–bringing a clean continuing resolution to the floor for Democrats and Republicans to vote on–and to continue pushing the country toward a completely unnecessary government shutdown. If Republicans were truly serious about avoiding a crisis they would pass the Senate’s short-term funding bill to remove the threat of a government shutdown immediately. We won’t negotiate while Republicans are threatening families and the economy with a crisis.

The Senate will be adjourned until 9:30am Tuesday.

Republican House of Representatives pulls the pin.

GOP House Passes Bill To Delay Obamacare As Gov’t Shutdown Nears

Saturday [September 28] around midnight, the GOP-led House voted to pass three amendments to the continuing resolution which would repeal Obamacare’s medical device tax (248-174), delay the law by one year (231-192) and make sure U.S. troops are paid (423-0). The stopgap bill would keep the government funded through Dec. 15.

At the last minute, party leaders decided to add a special “conscience clause” delaying for one year an Obamacare rule that non-church employer health plans cover contraception without co-pays for female employees.

A senior Senate Democratic aide said it was “highly unlikely” that the Senate would return on Sunday. The White House also issued a statement on Saturday saying that the president would veto the the GOP’s bill. House Democrats were furious with their Republican colleagues.

The House adjourned until Monday at 10am. No Sunday sessions are planned for either house of Congress.

Today’s vote by House Republicans is pointless. The American people will not be extorted by Tea Party anarchists. #GOPshutdown

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) September 28, 2013

Al Qaeda: "Our plan to destroy America hasn't worked. So we are endorsing the Republican Party instead"

— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) September 28, 2013