House schedules vote on raising the debt limit

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Economy ,; Congress

(Credit: CBS)

Republican leaders in the House have scheduled a vote to raise the national debt limit next week, expecting the bill to fail and prove to Democrats that the measure must be accompanied by plans for deficit reduction.

The U.S. government hit its $14.3 trillion debt limit on May 16, but the Treasury Department implemented what it called "extraordinary" measures to keep the government from defaulting on its loans. The Obama administration and several economists have warned, however, that Congress must raise the debt limit by Aug. 2 to avoid economic catastrophe. Republicans, meanwhile, have argued that raising the debt limit without also making significant cuts to the federal budget would be irresponsible.

The administration has said it is interested in deficit reduction, but say such plans must not be a condition for raising the debt ceiling. Hence, Republicans plan on showing Democrats that they must be -- next week's vote to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion will be a clean vote, House Republican leadership aides say, and no Republicans are expected to support the measure.

"The Obama Administration and more than 100 House Democrats have repeatedly demanded a clean increase of our debt limit, all but ignoring the overwhelming public opposition to it," said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. "As such, next week the House will vote to show once and for all that the Democrats' demands are way out of touch with the views of most Americans and the markets, who want Washington to stop spending money we don't have, cut up the credit cards and finally begin to live within our means."

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden today is continuing discussions with bipartisan congressional leaders over a deficit reduction plan.

Today's meeting is expected to be focused on reforming Medicare and Medicaid, according to reports, which has prompted some liberal groups to speak out against major cuts to those programs.

The liberal grassroots group MoveOn is targeting the Democrats in Biden's group, urging them to take Medicare cuts off the table. The group sent emails to the constituents of Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.) and Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Jim Clyburn (S.C.).

"When it's time to vote on the must-pass bill to stop the U.S. from defaulting on its debts, Republicans are hoping to use the vote as leverage to push through cuts to Medicare -- so it's important that the Democrats in the working group stand united," the email reads.

Meanwhile, the Older Women's Economic Security Task Force, a coalition of women's groups, sent a letter to President Obama and Biden, calling for the concerns of women to be taken into account, arguing that women rely disproportionately on programs like Medicare.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by 1VNVet May 27, 2011 6:04 PM EDT: pahgre - You see, that is where YOU are wrong as you have NO idea if I have any solutions or not, which I do by the way and most of them are very simple. I also do not spend my time blaming the republican party, the Democratic party or any party for that matter because it is men and women that have caused this problem, not a party. Sitting back and being an armchair quarterback is easy for some like you but it is a complete waste of time.

I retired at 50, have never taken a dime from our government until this last year when your president signed the health care law. Even though I have always had V.A. FREE healthcare available to me, I preferred to pay my own way until he signed the law and I then said I will NOT be forced to buy healthcare and I went down and signed up for my V.A. benefits.

I have never bee out of a job in my life for more than a day so I have never taken unemployment benefits and truthfully it is insane to offer benefits for over 2 YEARS....good grief, if you cant find some kind of work within 2 month then you don't want to work.

After 30 days unemployment should be given out only if you can prove that you have beat the bushes for a job and even then it should only be given if you go out and perform some type of community service such as picking up cans, mowing grass or some other job that will benefit your city or town.

Sitting home and getting money of any kind promotes laziness and a carefree attitude and that is part of what is wrong with this country.

I would have also let the car dealers go bankrupt, after all theirs is a business and I don't see our government helping small business so why help big business.

Our banks are also a business and if one fails then so be it.

People that buy new homes they know they can't afford in the first place SHOULD lose them if they can no longer make the payments as that is business and business is business and if the bank that sold that home can no longer sell it then tough...that is their problem.

Everything in life has consequences.

We need to STOP giving away money to other countries and absolutely STOP building hospitals and schools in other countries while we are closing hospitals and schools in our own country.

If a company moves out of the U.S. for cheaper labor force then warn that company they will never be let back into the U.S. and put a tariff on their goods so they will cost 10% more to import back into the U.S. than a company right here can sell the items for.

Start fining companies huge fines for the first time they hire an illegal, the second time they are caught, shut them down for 30 days and if caught the 3rd time, shut them down for good.

Take away television for prisoners and computers and any frills they have while incarcerated after all it is a PRISON. Put them back on the sides of the road doing roadwork and watch the prison rate go DOWN.

Start offering incentives to kids for staying in school and take some of the emphasis off of college and start offering trade schools for kids that might be interested and start paying teachers a decent salary and run our schools like a business for a profit.

Start paying our firemen and police a decent salary and start taking away some of the stupid loopholes in the law that lets a criminal go.

Start making anyone that files a frivolous lawsuit pay for both attorneys if they lose.

Do away with income tax and institute a flat 10% SALES tax on anything you purchase with the exception of medicines so if you buy a 1 million dollar yacht you will pay $100,000 in tax and there will be NO loopholes.

Make it mandatory that a president gets 30 days vacation each year and not a day more as that is what our servicemen and women get and what is good enough for them is certainly good enough for a president.

I can go on and on and on but this would be a start to getting this country back in order so don't you DARE tell me I have NO ideas when it is YOU that is still playing the BLAME Game.....Not I.; Reply to this comment


by 1VNVet May 26, 2011 2:56 PM EDT: WHY does it always have to be one party or the other and WHY does so many like you spend so much time BLAMING when you could be spending that time coming up with some solutions; Reply to this comment

by RobAla May 25, 2011 7:36 AM EDT

Why does anyone have to prove that deficit reduction is needed? It should be obvious to the dumbest of people that a federal government that is $14.3 trillion in the hole, and adding to that debt another $1.5 trillion each year in deficit spending - IS IN NEED OF DEFICIT REDUCTION!

What is in the water in Washington DC? Why do we continue to have elected idiots who continue to run up the national debt year after year in such a massive and irresponsible manner? Because, we the people, send these irresponsible jerks to represent us. Any jerk politician in Washington who us not for deficit reduction must be thrown out of office as soon as possible. And the deficit reduction should not be on the backs of working American taxpayers. Reduce the bloated and wasteful pig of a federal government to one that the American taxpayer can afford.

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by pasha128 May 25, 2011 8:12 AM EDT: Talk to the Republicans their presidents own $10 Trillion of the debt. Add in the Trillion dollars plus the 2011 Tea Party wants to add to the deficit putting the 2003 Republican Medicare Prescription Drug entitlement back onto the Credit Card (even though the promised in the campaign never to do this again). The Trillion or more Bush is still piling on the debt with his binding SOFA agreement in Iraq. And another $2 Trillion or so in tax cuts with no spending cuts and the Republicans are already committed to $14+ TRILLION in REPUBLICAN DEBT alone.


by 1VNVet May 25, 2011 11:04 AM EDT: pasha128 - It is because of those like you that we are in this mess. WHY does it always have to be one party or the other and WHY does so many like you spend so much time BLAMING when you could be spending that time coming up with some solutions at least like RobAla has above. I could type a hundred or maybe even a thousand reasons that THIS president is an idiot and nothing more than a spendthrift but what good would it do???

We simply need to get him out of office and get the senators and representatives out of office that seem to continually want to spend spend spend and it does not make one bit of difference as to what party they are in, what race they are, what religion they are or what gender they are.........it simply matters how smart they are and just how much they actually CARE about this country and knocking this enormous debt down.

2 year olds play the BLAME game..........NOT responsible adults.

Responsible adults try to find ways to fix problems....GROW UP!


by justme2012 May 24, 2011 10:23 PM EDT: I think we should let the children vote, it's their debt, they will have to pay it back or go bankrupt in the future.

I think every member of Congress and Obama, should have to get their kids or grandkids to sign the debtor ceiling note as representatives of all children in America.

We can't pretend we are borrowing money that we are going to pay back, it's their debt. They should know what their parents and grandparents are obligating them to work for.; Reply to this comment


by 1VNVet May 24, 2011 8:06 PM EDT: You know, if everyone would STOP blathering about the past and about which party did what and would start worrying about the present and what we can do about it, this country just MIGHT be able to be turned around!!!!!!; Reply to this comment


by Jhihmoac May 24, 2011 6:53 PM EDT: Of course! When in doubt, just put it on the tab...; Reply to this comment

by 1VNVet May 24, 2011 5:53 PM EDT

If someone would come along (and I don't care what party, and I don't care if male - female or in between, and I don't care what race) and he or she would clearly say: "if you elect me your president, I will sign a document stating emphatically that for the next four years I will not accept a salary, I will not take a vacation, I will not play golf, I will not PLAY anything, I will not take unnecessary trips to foreign countries or even here in the U.S., and I will NOT during those four years campaign for myself or for anyone else but rather I will WORK for you the people and for this great nation ONLY and once those four years are over if you the people are satisfied with my progress, I will then renew in writing that same contract for the next four years"........I would vote for them in a heartbeat!!!!!!

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by retm-w May 24, 2011 8:42 PM EDT: Well the same should go for the congressmen/women and the senators, They spend more on the taxpayers dime then the POTUS.

by Lindag10 May 24, 2011 5:50 PM EDT

Grandstanding pure and simple. Obviously they don't care about the country or the common people that defaulting on US notes will ruin. I you ever WATCH a session of the House or Senate, all they EVER do is posture and run their mouths. The members can't even cast a vote on a bill without each person voting running their mouth for less than ten minutes. No wonder nothing ever gets done.

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by justme2012 May 24, 2011 10:13 PM EDT: So the common people own the US debt?

Really?

How much US debt have you purchased?


by James93x May 24, 2011 5:18 PM EDT: Barack needs available cash for more warfare. He mulls the possibility of attacks on Syria and Pakistan.; Reply to this comment

by obboy2037 May 24, 2011 5:10 PM EDT

These creeps are playing with fire. And I sure hope the American people see through their crap.

They raised the debt ceiling nine times when GW Bush was president. It doesn't mean spending will automatically increase, it means the US will default on debt payments. That is not good and I am one mad American with investments. I hope J Boehner and his fake conservative gang of ultra right wing creeps send me a check for what I will lose if they don't get this done.

Deal with the deficit and spending later -- it is only a political rallying call anyway. They haven't agreed to do any significant spending cuts. Hypocrites!

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