GOP Squabbles Over Who Should Force Shutdown First...
House Republicans slam Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting he wouldn't fight in the Senate to pass the ObamaCare repeal he's demanded of the House. WSJ: "Rep. Sean Duffy (R., Wis.) tweeted that Messrs. Cruz and Lee 'refuse to fight. Wave white flag.' Rep. Tim Griffin (R., Ark.) said they were all talk no action: 'So far Sen Rs are good at getting Facebook likes, and townhalls, not much else. Do something.' Rep. Tom Price (R., Ga.) sniffed, 'House Republicans are turning words into action to defund #Obamacare. Ball will be in the Senate’s court.'"
E. J. Dionne pinpoints why the Right is so obsessed with stopping Obamacare: "Its central worry is not that the program will fail but that it will succeed."
...But Debt Limit Breach Bigger Threat
WH acceptance of sequester means shutdown less likely than debt limit breach, notes Politico: "[A] so-called clean CR could pass the House with roughly 180 Republican votes with the remainder coming from the Democratic side of the aisle, according to senior GOP sources ... Although some Democrats are pushing to turn off the sequester as part of any CR deal, White House officials believe they can count on between 40 and 50 Democratic votes for a clean CR at the $986 billion level ... with only sequester-level spending to claim as a victory on the CR, the House GOP stance will harden when it comes to hiking the debt ceiling in mid-October. And the political and economic stakes become much higher with the outcome more difficult to predict."
"If we get a debt ceiling crisis, it’s because Republican voters want one" finds W. Post's Greg Sargent: "The new Washington Post/ABC News poll on the debt ceiling tells us something remarkable: Among Republicans who believe that not raising the debt ceiling would cause serious harm to the economy, a majority of them wants Congress not to raise it anyway."
Fed Keeps Stimulating
Fed decides against tapering monetary stimulus for now. NYT: "...in a reversal that stunned economists and investors on Wall Street, the Fed said on Wednesday that it would postpone any retreat from its monetary stimulus campaign for at least another month and quite possibly until next year. The Fed’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, emphasized that economic conditions were improving. But he said that the Fed still feared a turn for the worse. He noted that Congressional Republicans and the White House were hurtling toward an impasse over government spending."
Might there be "Octaper", asks The Atlantic's Matthew O'Brien: "Bernanke said the Fed won't necessarily stop QE3 when unemployment is 7 percent, but will instead look at other labor market indicators as well. Why? Well, unemployment has fallen far faster than the Fed thought it would for the unfortunate reason that people have given up looking for work. In other words, the unemployment rate isn't capturing just how bad things still are — and the Fed realizes this. Now, it's possible that the Fed could start tapering in October or December if House Republicans don't bring on a financial apocalypse, but it's no sure thing. Even if the debt ceiling is raised without any (or at least much) drama, the still-weak labor market could conceivably push tapering into the new year."
WH tests support for Yellen. Bloomberg: "The prospects of Janet Yellen becoming the next U.S. Federal Reserve chairman increased as White House officials began gauging lawmakers’ support and she won the backing of a top Senate Democrat ... People familiar with White House discussions have said Yellen is the leading candidate for the post, while saying that a decision may extend into next week or beyond."
House To Slash Food Aid For Poor Today
Food stamp vote expected today. W. Post: "...House Republicans plan to vote on a proposal to dramatically curtail aid to needy Americans. Every Democrat is expected to vote against the proposal. The GOP measure would slash about $39 billion over the next decade for food stamps ... The proposal differs sharply from a Senate plan passed this summer that would cut roughly $4.5 billion ... mostly by reducing administrative expenses."
NYT's Eduardo Porter quantifies the shrinkage of the middle-class: "It is the story of America’s new normal. In the new normal the share of the nation’s income channeled to corporate profits is higher than at any time since the 1920s, while workers’ share languishes at its lowest since 1965. In the new normal, the real wages of workers on the factory floor are lower than they were in the early ’70s. And the richest 10 percent of Americans get over half of the income America produces ... The incomes of [median income] families actually rose by a fifth between 1990 and 2008 ... They were more educated and worked more hours, on average, and had children at a later age. Still, that was no match for the 56 percent jump in the cost of housing, the 155 percent leap in out-of-pocket spending on health care and the double-digit increase in the cost of college."
