Senate Deal Appears Imminent
House scraps vote, eyes on Senate. AP: "Senate leaders are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal ... It was expected to mirror a deal the leaders had neared Monday. That agreement was described as extending the debt limit through Feb. 7, immediately reopening the government fully and keeping agencies running until Jan. 15 ... It also set a mid-December deadline for bipartisan budget negotiators to report on efforts to reach compromise on longer-term issues like spending cuts ... Boehner's inability to produce a bill that could pass his own chamber likely means he will have to let the House vote on a Senate compromise, even if that means it would pass with strong Democratic and weak GOP support."
"The deal is essentially done, sources say" reports Politico.
Speedy passage will need unanimous consent in Senate. Reuters: "Under one scenario, all 100 senators would agree to let Democrats schedule quick votes to pass the bill. That would mean that Tea Party firebrands, such as Republican Senator Ted Cruz, would give up their rights to delay a vote. Cruz has not publicly announced his intentions but some Senate aides think that the Texas freshman with presidential aspirations has been sending positive signals in recent days."
Boehner bill pulled as House GOP splits three ways. Politico: "[Boehner] was caught between at least three different GOP factions as he tried to craft a compromise agreement: Republicans who didn’t want to slash government health care contributions for Capitol Hill aides, members who thought repealing the medical device tax was a giveaway to corporate America and conservatives, who thought Republican leaders were too soft on Obamacare ... The real question for Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is what comes next. Do they have to show more opposition by amending the bill, and continuing the grind of a multiweek shutdown and debt default crisis? Or can they simply put a Senate-passed compromise on the floor, saying the fight is over?"
“'It’s all over. We’ll take the Senate deal,' says a senior GOP aide," to the National Review.
Boehner's flop potentially strengthens final deal, says TNR's Noam Scheiber: "...the fact that it happened before Reid and McConnell had finished their negotiation—with McConnell having suspended the negotiation to give Boehner a chance to embarrass himself further—strengthens Reid’s hand at the margin and allows him to strike a slightly more favorable deal .. Boehner’s pathetically weak hand was always going to be exposed. On Tuesday, he did us the courtesy of completely exposing it before the last possible moment."
But What's Next?
Katrina vanden Heuvel argues deal sets up Social Security cuts, sacrifices jobs, in W. Post: "[The deal] means that Republicans will use the threat of the sequester — and the next round of the debt ceiling showdown — to exact longer-term cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits ... We should be debating the real challenges we face, not the contrived crises tea party Republicans keep inventing. How do we get the economy moving and creating jobs ... How do we empower workers to gain a fair share of the profits and growth that exist ... Will we squander the opportunity to rebuild our decrepit roads, airports and sewers when interest rates are low and the unemployed plentiful? ..."
Obama sees pivot to immigration. The Hill quotes: "Once that’s done, you know, the day after -- I’m going to be pushing to say, call a vote on immigration reform ... And if I have to join with other advocates and continue to speak out on that, and keep pushing, I’m going to do so because I think it’s really important for the country. And now is the time to do it."
