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McConnell-Reid Debt Plan Includes Catfood Commission II with Teeth

Posted: July 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Democratic Politics, Medicare, Psychopaths in charge, Republican politics, Social Security, the villagers, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics, voodoo economics, We are so F'd | Tags: , , , , , , |23 Comments

Since Harry Reid is now on board, it’s looking more and more likely that the so-called “McConnell Plan” is the one the villagers favor in order to get the debt ceiling raised. Naturally, that is the plan that will allow Republicans to blame the President for raising the debt ceiling while continuing to procrastinate on dealing with the deficit. From ABC News:

This proposal has not yet been the subject of a lot of interest by House Republicans, but there are signs it may be gaining “traction,” according to a report today in the Wall Street Journal. “What is emerging as the most likely outcome is a plan based on Messrs. McConnell and Reid’s work, a Democratic official familiar with negotiations said,” the Journal’s Carol E. Lee and Janet Hook report. “It would include roughly $1 trillion in deficit reduction, but would not come with tax increases or Medicare savings, the official said. It could include an extension of unemployment insurance, the official said, which costs $40 billion and would be offset by spending cuts.” http://on.wsj.com/p3l6u3

The problem for us ordinary citizens who have to live with whatever Congress decides, is that McConnell’s plan includes the establishment of a sequel to the Catfood Commission that is scarier than the first one.

The McConnell Plan: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would allow the debt ceiling to be raised by the president, with Congress voting disapprovingly three times before the 2012 election. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and McConnell are talking about creating a deficit commission that, like the base closing commission, would issue legislation that would be voted on up or down. They’re also discussing attaching spending cuts to the plan.

Greg Sargent quotes {shudder} Larry Kudlow on what the new Catfood Commission would be able to do.

Larry Kudlow, who’s plugged in with Congressional Republicans, scoops a key new detail about the emerging Mitch McConnell proposal to transfer control of the debt ceiling to the president:

McConnell is negotiating now with Sen. Harry Reid for a large-scale package that will allow the debt ceiling to rise unless overturned by a two-thirds vote. If a White House debt-ceiling deal comes through with $1.5 trillion of spending cuts, that will be part of the package. Right now, it’s not completed because enforceable spending caps have not been determined.

The key part of the new McConnell package is a joint committee to review entitlements in a massive deficit-reduction package. Unlike the Bowles-Simpson commission, this committee will be mandated to have a legislative outcome — an actual vote — that will occur early next year. No White House members. Evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. No outsiders. This will be the first time such a study would have an expedited procedure mandated with no amendments permitted. Also, tax reform could be air-dropped into this committee’s report.

A source with knowledge of the emerging proposal confirms to me that while nothing has been finalized, this is where the discussions are headed.

If I’m reading this right, what this means is that in order to make the McConnell proposal more palatable to conservatives, there would be a mandated bipartisan review of entitlements next year. The source tells me that if a majority of the committee can agree on recommendations for entitlement reform, the proposal would also mandate a Congressional vote on those recommendations.

So efforts to gut Social Security and Medicare will be postponed, but far from dead. And Congress will have to take up or down votes on the Catfood legislation–meaning no amendments permitted. We are so F’d.

23 Comments on “McConnell-Reid Debt Plan Includes Catfood Commission II with Teeth”

  1. WomanVoter says:
    July 15, 2011 at 11:46 am

    What is the point of calling ourselves a Super Power with 48 million without health care, and now we are about to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and put 50 + Million people in line to buy Cat Food and line up for Free Clinics!

    OBAMA FAIL!

  2. paper doll says:
    July 15, 2011 at 12:02 pm

    McConnell is negotiating now with Sen. Harry Reid….

    Already I’m fooken terrified

    • jawbone says:
      July 15, 2011 at 12:28 pm

      Also, when Obama gets behind closed doors to negotiate, it’s scary times indeed.

      Terrible that we have to hope the bat guano wacko Republicans will be intransigent on this Reid-McConnell legislation in order to keep it from happening.

      It will be brought up at the last moment, with no time to read the details, and, as with other rushed legislation, will be awful. Many intended bad and unintended bad consequences.

      Plus, Joe Lieberman has designs on getting seniors to pay far more out of pocket for Medicare by slipping in his proposals on the debt ceiling legislation. He believes making pay more up front is a good way to keep them from using their health insurance. Which is true.

      SInce Holy Joe is usually a stalking horse for Holy O, it will probably get in.

      It may not help, but I’ve been calling my D reps, the DNC, Harry Reid, have Pelosi yet to go, telling them that if they follow Obama on messing with SocSec and Medicare they will probably destroy the Democratic Party as a viable political entity. That I will not vote for Obama or an Dem who votes to support these changes/cuts.

      I know Obama doesn’t care, DC Dems? Maybe they figure Obama’s fund rasing will get them some of the Big Bidness, bankster, Uberwealthy money….

  3. jawbone says:
    July 15, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    A quote for these parlous times from Teddy Roosevelt::

    “Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare they have become the tools of corrupt interests, which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”

    “The Progressive Covenant With The People”, speech, August 1912 (My emphasis)

    Well said, TR.

    For us today the task is to find how we can do what TR urges.

    With great maldistribution of wealth comes obeisance to the monied and powerful. This will not be an easy fight to make changes to our political system, but it must be done. Or we as a representative democratic republic will be finished.

    T/U to Commenter Uncle $cam at Moon of AL.

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm

      Great quote. Thanks!

      I have this feeling of being battered again and again, with no time to recover in between batterings. I guess that’s how they want us to feel, so I keep trying to raise my spirits as best I can.

  4. WomanVoter says:
    July 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    President Obama, Republicans ( McConnell, Reid, Pelosi) Hands Off Social Security NOW!

  5. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    Jim De MInt: I’ll use every tool I have to stop the McConnell plan

    http://hotair.com/archives/2011/07/15/demint-ill-use-every-tool-i-have-to-stop-the-mcconnell-plan/

  6. bostonboomer says:
    July 15, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Boehner says no vote on debt ceiling until after balanced budget amendment vote (which will lose) next week. Will Moody’s and S & P go ahead and downgrade US credit rating?

    Scores of House Republicans say they won’t vote to raise the debt limit unless a Constitutional balanced budget amendment has been sent off to the states for ratification. And so whatever Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Congressional leaders decide about the real path ahead, he’ll hold votes next week on a major spending cut and spending cap plan that includes a hike in the debt ceiling, and, separately, on a balanced budget amendment. The latter would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate and, in its current form, stands little chance of passing either chamber.

    The votes themselves will put some political pressure on Democrats to support the nominally popular balanced budget amendment, and will allow Republicans to claim they voted to raise the debt limit in the event that the government runs out of borrowing authority. But the so-called “cut, cap, and balance” approach is dead on arrival in the Senate.

    At a Friday press conference after a meeting with the GOP caucus, Boehner let slip, subtly, that the plan will go nowhere.

    “The cut cap and balance plan that the House will vote on next week is a solid plan for moving forward,” he said. “Let’s get through that vote and then we’ll make decisions about what will come after.”

    • Gregory says:
      July 15, 2011 at 7:32 pm

      We are well on our way of losing status as the world superpower. A balanced budget instituted into our constitution would almost guarantee that we’d have to scale back our military, kill NASA altogether and really without a space vehicle it is on life support anyway, we’d have to scale back social services, we’d have to lay off thousands upon thousands of government employees, we’d probably have to scrap medicare, we couldn’t monitor our borders well, we couldn’t invest in new technologies, our science infrastructure would probably completely collapse, our colleges and universities would decay, our public infrastructure would eventually completely collapse, the list goes on and on.

      Whoever came up with this idea is just a complete idiot. I don’t pretend to be an economist or well versed in financial matters. I am an underemployed scientist. I would think a constitutional amendment such as this would probably cause the entire economy to completely crash and burn. On the bright side it might force them to give up their warmongering ways and end the two disastrous wars. Probably wouldn’t. I think these people would rather see our country torn to pieces than admit that waging war against our fellow humans is not clever, appropriate or virtuous.

      • bostonboomer says:
        July 15, 2011 at 7:38 pm

        It won’t happen. It could never pass the Senate, and 38 states wouldn’t vote for the amendment. It’s just a stalling tactic.

  7. Minkoff Minx says:
    July 15, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    I am curious, how many of you think they will go ahead and raise the debt ceiling at the last moment…and how many think they will let the country default?

    Please tell me what you think is going to happen.

    • dakinikat says:
      July 15, 2011 at 5:37 pm

      I think the adults in Congress don’t want it to happen. The Tea Party whackos and Ron Paul aren’t adults however.

    • bostonboomer says:
      July 15, 2011 at 7:39 pm

      I wouldn’t dare guess at this point.

    • Minkoff Minx says:
      July 15, 2011 at 7:50 pm

      I wonder if it is all just a big show to keep the public, especially the press, from hounding on the unemployment and jobs crap. I mean, you don’t hear squat about the job problem in the media or pundit scene now. (At least the Main Stream pundit scene.)

      Did you see this:

      Pelosi Warns Women Of Changes To Social Security And Medicare, But Says Chained CPI Isn’t A Cut | Crooks and Liars

      Maybe it is all to get the people frustrated and confused so that they can slip this kind of stuff past us?

      • Minkoff Minx says:
        July 15, 2011 at 8:03 pm

        From the link:

        Women are an important constituency in the Democratic party (they were twice as likely to vote for Obama in the last election as any other group). Add to that the fact that one of the most common fears among single women is becoming a bag lady. Gee, Medicare and Social Security cuts sound like a real formula for electoral success, huh?

        This week, multimillionaire House minority leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi seemingly alerted women to the dangers of the changes to Social Security and Medicare in the various debt ceiling proposals – but also claims that a change to the chained CPI isn’t a cut. That sounds like she sees the train coming down the track and knows she has to sell it to her caucus:

        Yup, they all know what is coming down the track.

        • dakinikat says:
          July 15, 2011 at 8:16 pm

          Glad I just wrote something on the chained CPI. If they wanted to attach federal contracts to that I’d agree, but seniors have different spending profiles than most households. and are more impacted by increases in things like food and health care.

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