Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama announced agreement to night with Republican congressional leaders on a compromise to avoid the nation’s first-ever financial default. The deal would cut more than $2 trillion from federal spending over a decade.
Default “would have had a devastating effect on our economy,” Obama said at the White House, relaying the news to the American people and financial markets around the world. He thanked the leaders of both parties.
House Speaker John Boehner telephoned Obama at mid-evening to say the agreement had been struck, officials said.
No votes were expected in either house of Congress until Monday at the earliest, to give rank-and-file lawmakers time to review the package.
But leaders in both parties were already beginning the work of rounding up votes.
In a conference call with his rank and file, Boehner said the agreement “isn’t the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town.”
Obama underscored that point. He said that, if enacted, the agreement would mean “the lowest level of domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was president” more than a half century ago.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid provided the first word of the agreement.
“Sometimes it seems our two sides disagree on almost everything,” he said. “But in the end, reasonable people were able to agree on this: The United States could not take the chance of defaulting on our debt, risking a United States financial collapse and a world-wide depression.”
{AP/Matzav.com Newscenter}
If only the government ceased funding all thos ridiculous projects especially those overseas, like the building of a mosque in Pakistan. there would be money, OUR OWN MONEY, for us here at home! A baby born today here in the U.S. already is $45,000 in the red from the national debt. It’s reeeediculous! So much more of our money could be spent on American citizens and thus the debt crisis may be obliterated – THAT’S TAKING IT TOO FAR, I KNOW, – but much or ost of it will! Get our troops out of wars that we have no business to be in in the first place and certainly no chance of winning. As soon as weleave they parade all kinds of anti-american chants! Ao why spend our hard earned tax money there!?!? Then we can spend it here on our shores or even reduce the tax burden on our people!
Does anyone realize how weak the dollar is overseas? It’s nuts!
HEY YOU WANT TO SAVE MONEY BY CUTTING SO IGOT A GREAT IDEA LET US MAKE A BILL THAT WOULD CAUSE US TO SPEND 1 TRILLION DOLLARS IN 10 YAERS THEN THE NEXT DAY LET US REPEAL IT AND WE JUST SAVRD MONEY WE DIDNT SPEND WELL THIS IS WHAT THE PRESIDENT IS DOING.IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT THEY WERE ALSO ARGUING ABOUT WHICH DAY WE WERE GOING TO DEFAULT CONSIDERING THAT IT IS HARF TO KNOW ESPECIALLY WHEN WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SUCH A LARGE AMOUNT
re: 2. Comment from MARK LEVIN
.??????, ??? ??????
re- #3 yiu sound like a real democrat always criticizing and no answers
the liberal media is going to blast bohener because there was no tax hikes
Learn the truth:
– Economist Michael Hudson, on Democracy Now! July 22nd
Full-transcript and audio at
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/22/pushing_crisis_gop_cries_wolf_on
– Richard Wolff, Democracy Now!, July 28th
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/28/richard_wolff_debt_showdown_is_political
Yeah, the same “liberal media” that didn’t cover the following and that hardly ever covers the massive grassroots support that exists for single-payer health care.
Independent Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont on this deficit-reduction deal. Spoken on the floor of the Senate back on July 20th, they are at least as relevant now:
I heard that sound byte on the daily program Democracy Now!, whose web site I copied the transcript from
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/21/headlines/sanders_blasts_entitlement_cuts_tax_cuts_in_deficit_talks
From the news as well as web searches I did on Google, it did not appear as if these words of truth-to-power were covered by any of the mainstream (corporate) media outlets. Not even NPR or PBS (both corporate- lite).
Here is a piece by Senator Sanders in which he elaborates on his position:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/congratulations-sen-cobur_b_905230.html?view=print
And here is a YouTube video, posted to Sen. Sanders’ web site yesterday (Aug. 1):
“Immoral, Grotesque, Unfair”: Senator Sanders Announces That he Will Vote ‘No’ on the Deficit-Reduction Plan:
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=b228667f-24ad-463b-a216-b027ab01cdeb