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Politics And The Debt Ceiling
ResumeThe clock is ticking down. We look at the state of play in the debt negotiations -–the horse-trading, the hard compromises --or maybe the deadlock--in Washington. Will we get a deal? What does the country need?
No summer recess today for the U.S. Senate. School is not out.
The whole country is bearing down on that famous August 2nd moment when, we’re told, the United States hits its sky-high debt ceiling and cannot make good on its full faith and credit obligations to the world.
Uncle Sam as bum. The whole U.S. economy, the global economy maybe, in the balance.
Now, that is leverage. And it’s being used. Trillions in cuts on the table. Billions in tax hikes. Iconic federal programs under the axe. So who blinks? Or do we crash?
This hour On Point: top voices in the debt ceiling debate.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests:
Jim Jordan, Republican Congressman representing Ohio’s 4th District, chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending.
James Clyburn, Democratic Congressman representing South Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. He is in the leadership liaison to the Appropriations Committee and one of the Democratic Caucus' primary liaisons to the White House.
Mark McKinnon, Republican political strategist and President of Maverick Media. He worked as media advisor to former President George W. Bush and for 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain. He is co-founder of No Labels, a non-profit political organization made up of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents whose slogan is “Not left. Not right. Forward.”
Paul Begala, Democratic political consultant and Political commentator on CNN. He was an adviser to President Bill Clinton and chief strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign. He is a research professor at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and teaches at the University of Georgia School of Law.
Gail Chaddock, a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor.
Tom's Reading List
- Roll Call Senate Democrats are trying to hit Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) where it hurts — at the racetrack.
- No Labels ...the Senate announced they would shorten their planned Independence Day recess by four days, agreeing to return to Washington after July 4 and stay in session until they resolve the current debt crisis.
- MSNBC Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he has invited President Obama and Vice President Biden to Capitol Hill Wednesday for deficit talks. Reid says the White House is on board, and the White House economic team is expected to attend as well.
- Washington Post In general, debt deals consist of spending cuts to make conservatives happy and tax increases to make liberals happy. But given the narrowing space for compromise, we're going to need to go even more specific than that: we're going to need spending cuts that make liberals happy and tax increases that make conservatives happy.
- Time With only five weeks to go until the borrowing-limit deadline is reached, negotiators really have only two, or at most three, weeks to strike an agreement. A bill of this magnitude will take several days to draft and at least a week to get through both chambers.
This program aired on July 5, 2011.