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House to Vote on "Cut, Cap, and Balance" Bill | C-SPAN
Just seems like a whole bunch of political theater to me. It's not gonna pass into legislation.
But the bigger picture is that there exists a contingent within Congress that see it as their duty to fundamentally change the nature of fiscal policy in Washington. Just IMHO, the new Tea Party candidates may have over-read their "mandate" from the 2010 midterms, much as the Dems did with the healthcare law in 2009-2010.
The House of Representatives will debate and vote on the Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling. The measure, called the "Cut, Cap and Balance Act," would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion but would be accompanied by mandatory spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment.
The measure, authored by Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), would require up to $2 trillion of cuts to discretionary spending over the next ten years. It would also cap spending at under 20% of gross domestic product in a decade (spending is currently more than 23% GDP). Finally, it would include an amendment to the Constitution to balance the budget.
The White House put out a statement saying it "strongly opposes" the Republican measure and said the President would veto it. "Neither setting arbitrary spending levels nor amending the Constitution is necessary to restore fiscal responsibility," a statement by the Office of Management and Budget read.
Realizing that the House bill is unlikely to pass the Senate, Senate leadership is drafting what is considered a “fall-back” or “last-ditch” option, which could become the leading option in coming days as the August 2nd deadline to lift the debt ceiling nears and negotiations with the President to reach a “grand bargain” are elusive.
Just seems like a whole bunch of political theater to me. It's not gonna pass into legislation.
But the bigger picture is that there exists a contingent within Congress that see it as their duty to fundamentally change the nature of fiscal policy in Washington. Just IMHO, the new Tea Party candidates may have over-read their "mandate" from the 2010 midterms, much as the Dems did with the healthcare law in 2009-2010.
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