Congressional Leaders Downplay Grand Bargain
Both Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Budget Chair Ryan say there will be no grand bargain. W. Post: "'If we focused on doing some big grand bargain, like those prior efforts you mention, then I don't think we'll be successful because we'll focus on our differences,' Ryan said.
'Each party will demand that the other compromises a core principle, and then we'll get nothing done.' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) agreed, dismissing thoughts of a grand bargain as 'happy talk' during a local radio appearance. Asked about including Medicare and Social Security reforms in the package, Reid said it wouldn't happen. 'Get something else in your brain; stop talking about that,' Reid said. 'That is not going to happen this time. There's not going to be a grand bargain.'"
But Ryan may still have his eye on Social Security or Medicare. Politico: "Implicit in Ryan’s remarks is a warning that Republicans won’t back away from sequestration simply to protect defense. But the chairman was clearly signaling he is open to a good-faith bargain in which mandatory savings can be substituted for appropriations to restore more order for both sides ... Democrats admit privately that it is very doable to have a short-term fix for sequestration, relying on perhaps $75 billion to $100 billion in mandatory savings already in President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget."
House hawks worried about defense cuts. Roll Call: "...many Republicans seem to prefer the automatic cuts to crafting a deal with Democrats that might raise tax revenues. The defense authorizers, however, still remember the days when sequestration was anathema to Congress. And their letter Thursday revives that line of rhetoric."
Politico details "How Washington is killing the economy": "Washington’s drag on the economy now springs from a multiplying array of sources, including the constant threat of devastating fiscal crisis, the blunt nature of the sequester spending cuts, the troubled roll-out of Obamacare and the now deeply strained relations with key economic allies over clandestine surveillance allegations.
Automatic food stamp cut coming Nov. 1. CBPP: "The 2009 Recovery Act’s temporary boost in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits ends on November 1, 2013, which will mean a benefit cut for each of the nearly 48 million SNAP recipients ... House and Senate members who are now beginning to negotiate a final Farm Bill should keep this benefit cut in mind as they consider, in reauthorizing the SNAP program, whether to make even deeper cuts. The November 1 benefit cut will be substantial. A household of three, such as a mother with two children, will lose $29 a month..."
Prophets of debt apocalypse keep being wrong, notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "I just reread an op-ed article by Alan Greenspan in The Wall Street Journal, warning that our budget deficit will lead to soaring inflation and interest rates ... Greenspan’s article was published in June 2010, almost three and a half years ago — and both inflation and interest rates remain low. So has the ex-Maestro reconsidered his views after having been so wrong for so long? Not a bit ... In Senate testimony more than two and half years ago, Mr. Bowles warned that we were likely to face a fiscal crisis within around two years, and he urged his listeners to “just stop for a minute and think about what happens” if 'our bankers in Asia' stop buying our debt."
GOP May Not Hold Immigration Vote This Year
"House GOP plans no immigration vote in 2013" reports Politico: "A growing chorus of GOP lawmakers and aides are intensely skeptical that any of the party’s preferred piecemeal immigration bills can garner the support 217 Republicans — they would need that if Democrats didn’t lend their votes ... Leadership also says skepticism of President Barack Obama within the House Republican Conference is at a high, and that’s fueled a desire to stay out of a negotiating process with the Senate. Republicans fear getting jammed. Of course, the dynamics could change. Some, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), are eager to pass something before the end of the year..."
WH rallies business leaders. The Hill: "The meeting with business and association leaders, including the Chamber of Commerce, comes hours after President Obama spoke on the hot-button issue at the White House. Attendees include Aric Newhouse, the senior vice president for policy and government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers and Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber of Commerce. It is unclear if Obama attended the meeting."
TNR's Alec MacGillis offers "Seven Reasons To Stop Being Fatalistic About Immigration Reform": "... the fact remains that there is a conceivable path forward – if Boehner wants to pursue it. 'He’s in a much stronger place for himself job-security-wise all around,' says one House Democratic aide."
Slow, Steady Obamacare Enrollment
Slow enrollment is to be expected notes The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta: "...new health-coverage plans in 2007. Today, 97 percent of people in the state have health insurance of one type or another. But when the state's bid for universal coverage got started, it launched to a very slow start, according to those oversaw the rollout in the state. And that's without all the website issues that have plagued Healthcare.gov."
Healthcare.gov troubles speak to need for better tech procurement, say Obama campaign vets in NYT oped: "Much of the problem has to do with the way the government buys things. The government has to follow a code called the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which is more than 1,800 pages of legalese that all but ensure that the companies that win government contracts, like the ones put out to build HealthCare.gov, are those that can navigate the regulations best, but not necessarily do the best job."
