Apparently they don’t have the stomache for another fight during an election year:
There’s already movement to avoid the fiscal cliff.
House and Senate leadership Thursday approached a deal to fund the government for six months — a move that would avert a Sept. 30 shutdown, and keep the federal government operating through March.
The deal would keep the government funded at the same levels of last year’s debt limit law, a spending level Republicans have consistently dismissed as too high. But it would also avert a messy pre-election showdown over shutting down the government, something neither party wants.
The six-month funding resolution illustrates the sway of conservatives over Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his leadership team, as the conservative Republican Study Committee, led by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, advocated for a six-month funding resolution instead of a three-month bill preferred by leaders. The Senate also backs a six month funding bill.
Sure would have been nice if they had acted sensibly last year and we would have retained our credit rating.
WereBear
Do you think they might have learned something?
Oh, I crack myself up!
Hunter Gathers
Boehner will find a way to fuck this up. He always does.
Villago Delenda Est
If one shows the slightest inclination towards acting sensibly, you’re immediately purged from the ranks of the teatards.
We don’t care if we’re headed for a lee shore on this course, Captain! Keep turning starboard!
MattF
No, the MIC wasn’t going to be strangled by Congressional inaction. This is not a surprise, not even remotely.
Patricia Kayden
Perhaps Repubs feel that Romneybot may win and they’ll get their way in January anyways. Can’t see why they’d avoid a reason to poke Obama in his eye just before the elections. They love to fight.
chopper
Don’t tell me the GOP has run out of spite. I thought that magic bag was bottomless.
JoyfulA
Just read that the GOP Senate candidate in Ohio is shorting Treasuries and plans to vote against raising the debt ceiling: http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/07/27/590481/josh-mandel-shorting-treasury-bonds/
Ash Can
That’s all well and good, but are the wackos going to vote for it? Or will this be another Keystone Kops routine where Boehner’s Heroes tell him to go take a flying leap at the last minute and he has to run bawling to the Dems (and anyone in his own party who’ll listen to him)?
jl
Let us hope so.
However, the US ‘credit rating’ means absolutely nothing IMHO. It is a charade. Only sound thing to do is to make fun of it, since giving it any credibility at all just arms the VSP and GOP with more meaningless BS talking points.
General Stuck
Sure they blinked. Sooner or later that uncomfortable feeling in the crotch becomes self diagnosed as the opposition having a power grip on the testicles of republican fear and loathing.
General Stuck
@Ash Can:
I imagine the vote will be similar to the previous one, concerning shutdowns and debt scofflaws, where Boehner’s orange ass gets saved by Nancy and her posse of vampire slayers.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Patricia Kayden: The last threat didn’t go so well for them politically. And, in the end, they lost more than they won.
jl
@General Stuck:
Fact that enough Democrats in Senate hung to together, instead of separately made a big difference.
How House GOP is the last stop on income tax issue, and has to actually do something, and bear responsibility for real world outcomes, not spin.
So, if they have a sense of self preservation, it is a good time for them to blink. I hope they do.
If they don’t blink before election day, I hope they get what they deserve at the polls (if enough people are allowed to vote).
Zifnab
@jl: Cheers to this. The credit rating agencies have exposed themselves as frauds. If anything, our AA- rating should be a point of pride. We survived the Moodypocoplyse.
Chris T.
The country’s formal credit rating from any of the big agencies is meaningless. No doubt some take it as a symbol, but just as many use it as a sort of Fear Gauge, and as fear climbs, so does demand for US Treasuries, reducing their yield. In other words, while a lower credit rating normally makes buyers avoid any given bond issue, it has both an “avoid” and an “attract” effect on Treasuries, with the two canceling out.
Hence: meaningless.
NotMax
Appropriations bills: such a quaint concept.
catclub
So, are the prescribed levels equal to or higher than the levels that sequestration demands for the DOD?
I do know that the Congress can overrule its previous decisions, but would this also require an Obama signature?
I am asking because I wonder how it will affect the ‘automatic’ layoff notices that various defense contractors are promising on October 31 – or thereabouts.
October surprise indeed.
rikyrah
call me skeptical
but, this still has to get past the GOP House.
Orange Julius would have to stiff a lot of his caucus..
I have yet seen anything to indicate that he’s willing to do that.
I’m just sayin’.
The Moar You Know
They are weak. And utterly terrified of the defense cuts; in a lot of red states, those are the only decently-paying jobs anymore. Obama would, could and should use the opening to screw more concessions out of them, but Congress ain’t going to go along with that in the name of “comity” or some other six dollar word that means “Stockholm Syndrome”.
Thomas DeVito
Thank god. I remember tearing my hair out in anxiety during the last debt fight. I don’t need to go through that again.
Also, if anybody wants to help out a fellow Balloon-Juicer in his aspiring writing career, I’d appreciate a “like” over huuur: http://mission.tv/features/a-battle-of-the-banned.html
Roger Moore
@Patricia Kayden:
Because they didn’t appreciate it when it happened, but they lost last time. They didn’t realize how badly they lost because Obama and company didn’t take their victory by tap dancing on the Republicans faces; instead they took it in the form of setting up the conditions for the next showdown. Now that we’re getting in position for that next showdown, the Republicans realize that the situation is against them. I’m not going to claim it’s 11 dimensional chess, but it is the product of only one side thinking beyond the immediate confrontation.
Culture of Truth
I also am not claiming 11th Dimensional chess, but this uncomfortable situation for Republicans we are in right now did not happen by accident.
Punchy
There’s no way the teatard House votes for this. Not in an election year.
burnspbesq
Not that that downgrade has had any noticeable effect on our ability to borrow at real interest rates less than zero. The Invisible Bond Vigilantes are still too busy gang-banging the Confidence Fairy to care.
burnspbesq
@JoyfulA:
The capital markets are going to fuck him in the ass, repeatedly, between now and Election Day, and the capital markets don’t believe in AstroGlide.
Let the fucking Bankruptcy Court deal with him while we point and laugh.
jl
@Zifnab:
I find it interesting that Fitch, which is the only rating agency with any expertise at all in macroeconomic analysis needed to determine what is typically meant by ‘ability to pay debts’ in terms of real value, still give the US its highest rating. Though the outlook is ‘negative’, but I haven’t had time to look it up what that’s about.
S&P claims special expertise in determining whether an organization has the ability to deliver the pieces of legal tender due, which is irrelevant to any country that can print its own currency, unless the government decides it just doesn’t wanna.
The S&P downgrade was a joke. People can judge for themselves, keeping in mind that S&P doesn’t even claim expertise in critical areas relevant to their rationale, and that they goofed up the numbers and then changed their rationale.
Standard & Poor’s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_%26_Poor%27s#Downgrade_of_U.S._long-term_credit_rating
Note that S and P did the downgrade after the US did its budget deal, so after the government decided it still wanna pay
Bulworth
So after all the fuss last year about The Debt Crisis! and the need to Cut! Cut! Cut! Runaway Spending, our teabag leaders are going to punt for six months?
I’m sure the teaparty leaders will take to townhalls angry and ready to revolt. You know, because of the spending.
El Cid
“We” did retain “our” credit ratings, didn’t we?
It was only Moody’s, if I recall, and the other two major agencies ignored their move.
What passed unreported except among us seditious types was that Moody’s spelled out the reason for their move, and it was based upon the breathtaking realization that ‘holy shit, the major opposition party really would risk a default for political gain’.
Linda Featheringill
I have wondered about the outbreak of sanity among Republicans lately, first in the Senate and now in the House. What on earth brought that on?
Rep legislators certainly don’t confide in me but I would guess that they’ve decided that Willard is not going to win the election and there will be no great wave of voter enthusiasm to sweep all the Reps into office. In fact, each Republican will probably have to defend and explain himself to his potential voters. In such a situation, it would be logical to try at least to look like you have the best interests of your constituents at heart.
And yes, I guess I just credited the Republicans with logical thinking. Please don’t hit me. I won’t do it again.
Amanda
The GAO estimated that the delay in increasing the debt limit increased borrowing costs by $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2011.
http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592832.pdf
jl
@El Cid: Standard and Poor’s downgraded.
Moody, and Fitch, kept same ratings, but both changed their ‘outlook’.
It is all BS.
Only one to pay any attention to at all is Fitch for countries, and then their ratings are still BS for reasons given above. Sometimes worth reading their analysis.
Edit: Oops. forgot to give my reasons above. All three of these outfits have like 20 plus rating categories. There is no way in heck they can cut national credit worthiness that fine, given that nations almost always pump out the dough. Just asinine, all of it. I think it is some kind of scam, actually, but got no proof. Just guessing from the goings on with financial industry during housing and mortgage bubble.
Professor
Has anyone forgotten that Mr Boehner went on TV, I forget which one, and said that ‘He got 98% of what he asked for, and he was happy with the outcome? Why hasn’t anyone brought this up in the discussion?
The Moar You Know
@Linda Featheringill: Didn’t happen. What you saw in the Senate was simply proof that McConnell doesn’t know how to count. He thought both measures would fail, he “had the math”, and so thought he’d pull a fast one on the Dems by allowing the vote and then rub the resulting egg of failure in their faces.
He absolutely didn’t think it would pass. Now he’s got a far bigger problem than what he started with.
Linda Featheringill
@The Moar You Know:
McConnell can’t count:
Really? Wow. You’d think that by now he would have that skill well honed.
At any rate, applause for Reid. Good job. The Senate Dems managed to uncouple the tax benefits for the fatcats from benefits for the rest of us. Hooray.
Tonal Crow
Yeah, but the real question is whether the Republicans will pull another debt-ceiling debacle as they did last summer.
Most people don’t realize how close Republicans came to destroying the entire world’s economy then. As it is, they reignited the European debt crisis and got our credit rating slashed, plus they destroyed millions of peoples’ IRAs.
This is || this close to treason. I have no doubt they’ll try to close the gap the next time.
—
Tag: Romney’s worse than Sarah Palin.
JCT
@The Moar You Know: Exactly — he thought he was calling Reid’s “bluff”. It was a pretty surprising miscue because Harry was very straightforward about wanting that up and down vote and he is not a gambler.
Poor Yertle McConnell just fucked up.
muddy
You misspelled stomach, but indeed they give me a stomach ache.
General Stuck
@rikyrah:
It was how the original debt ceiling deal was passed in the House to avert a default. Something like 80 GOP tea tards voted no, and the difference for passage was made up with democrats votes. Unless Boehner has gone completely insane and wants to spin the shutdown bottle again, there is no reason to not believe a similar outcome for this deal .
Captain C
@Zifnab: I’ve always wondered why the Democratic response to the rating downgrade wasn’t something along the lines of:
“Isn’t this the same agency that gave AAA ratings to toxic and fraudulent mortgage-backed securities? Why would anyone listen to them anymore?”
Of course, I also wondered why, when Shrubya described trillions in T-bills held by Social Security as worthless IOUs, someone didn’t ask him, “So, are you and the Republicans now planning to deliberately default on the U.S. debt? Why shouldn’t you be impeached and convicted immediately for this?”
(Yes, I know that with the Rethug congress of those years, he probably could have let Cheney pull a Sandusky on the White House lawn and probably gotten away with it, but still…)
EriktheRed
I’m guessing quite a few members of one party would like it very much.
EriktheRed
@MattF:
“MIC”??
Villago Delenda Est
@EriktheRed:
Military-Industrial Complex.
EriktheRed
@Villago Delenda Est:
Aaah….
Yes, that makes sense.
catclub
@EriktheRed: I would guess members of both parties, so long as they knew the blame would be on the other party.
NonyNony
@catclub:
Nope. Democrats hate shutting down the government, even if Republicans get all the blame.
Democratic politicians generally believe in government and in process (hell I think some of ’em in the Senate believe in process more than they believe in anything else). Shutting down the government is morally offensive to most of them.
I remember the outrage back in the 90s when Newt did it. They didn’t really believe that he would do it because they had so much “respect for the institutions and process of the US government” and they thought he did too, since he worked his ass off to get a set in it. They really were gobsmacked to find out that it wasn’t just rhetoric – he really would destroy the whole thing if he didn’t get his way.
They’ve learned slowly ever since that Republicans these days don’t share their values in the “institution of government”, but when it happened the first time you could almost see the shock on some of their faces.