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| Obama at the White House. (AFP) |
Washington, Aug. 1: President Obama and Congressional leaders of both parties said late yesterday that they had agreed to a framework for a budget deal that would cut trillions of dollars in federal spending over the next decade and clear the way for an increase in the government’s borrowing limit.
With the health of the fragile economy hanging in the balance and financial markets watching closely, the leaders said they would present the compromise to their caucuses today in hopes of enacting it before a Tuesday deadline to avert default.
Even as the President was speaking from the White House last night, Speaker John A. Boehner was on a conference call with House Republicans, trying to sell them on the proposal he had signed off on only minutes before.
Since he is likely to lose the most conservative elements of his rank and file, Boehner faces the task of framing the pact as friendly enough to Republican principles to win over a significant group of House Republicans without alienating Democrats he will need to push it over the top.
President Obama, in a hastily called appearance with reporters that ended a day of uncertainty, said that the compromise would “allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America”.
“It ensures also that we will not face this same kind of crisis again in six months, or eight months, or 12 months,” he said. “And it will begin to lift the cloud of debt and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over our economy.”
Just before Obama spoke on television, the two Senate leaders, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, took the floor to endorse the pact as well.
“I am relieved to say that leaders from both parties have come together for the sake of our economy to reach a historic, bipartisan compromise that ends this dangerous standoff,” said Reid, the majority leader.
The tentative agreement calls for at least $2.4 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years, a new Congressional committee to recommend a deficit-reduction proposal by Thanksgiving, and a two-step increase in the debt ceiling.
The announcement concluded a tumultuous 24 hours that saw hopes rise on Saturday night over the prospect of a deal that might have concluded the budget stalemate. By yesterday, worry set in again as lawmakers and White House officials struggled to hammer out the fine points of an agreement that must clear a Senate controlled by Democrats as well as the Republican House.
If the deal is approved, establishing a special joint committee to explore deficit reduction, it will ensure that the size and scope of the federal government and the tension between spending and taxes will remain front and centre in the Washington debate headed into the 2012 election.
Markets reacted favourably to the announcement, with Asian markets jumping on news of the deal. The Nikkei was up nearly 2 per cent in late-morning trading; the dollar rose against the Japanese yen.
President Obama tempered his comments by noting that “there are still some very important votes to be taken” and that winning House approval would be a particular challenge. On the conference call, Boehner sought to portray the new agreement as one heavily tilted towards the Republican call for no new revenue, and he said it met the goal of instituting cuts greater than the amount of the debt limit increase.
In a presentation, he said the pact would prevent a “job-killing default” — a warning to lawmakers that failure to raise the limit could add to the bleak employment picture.
“Our framework is now on the table that will end this crisis in a manner that meets our principles of smaller government,” said Boehner, who said he hoped to get the legislation onto the House floor as quickly as possible. Participants on the call, which lasted about an hour, said that the tone was cordial and that lawmakers expressed less resistance than had been anticipated.
At the same time, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the former Speaker and current Democratic leader, was non-committal about the plan, suggesting that Democrats might not rally behind it. “I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide,” she said in a written statement.
Senior White House officials said they were hopeful that Congressional leaders from both sides would manage to sell the deal to their parties. While “there are some Democrats who simply don’t believe in the necessity of deficit reduction”, one administration official said: “Most do. I think it’s important as a party to show Americans that we’re serious about deficit reduction.”
The Senate seemed an easier sell. Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska, said that from the terms of the deal described to him, “I think I will be satisfied and supportive”. After years of work, he noted, Congress has become “serious about cuts in spending”.
As conversations flowed between the White House and Capitol Hill early yesterday, Reid publicly embraced the compromise that would tie deep spending cuts to a debt ceiling increase even though some Democrats believed the White House has given too much ground to McConnell and Boehner.
While lawmakers awaited word of an agreement, talks dragged on. Congressional and administration officials attributed the delay to efforts by Boehner, Republican of Ohio, to limit immediate reductions in the Pentagon budget and better protect it from future cuts in order to cement votes from defence hawks. He needs those votes to win approval of the plan in the House.
Officials said that Boehner ultimately did not gain much and that the dispute was settled through an agreement to expand the definition of “security-related” spending to include departments beyond the Pentagon, spreading out potential cuts to the department of homeland security and other agencies.
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