Little update on a slow holiday
by digby
If I had to guess today, the agreement on Wednesday will probably look a lot like this:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has privately offered Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a deal that would reopen the government until mid-to-late December while extending the U.S. debt ceiling until next year, according to several sources familiar with the talks.
The proposal would set up a framework for larger budget negotiations with the House over the automatic sequestration spending cuts and other major deficit issues, the sources said. Moreover, Senate Democrats are open to delaying Obamacare’s medical device tax and a requirement that those receiving Obamacare subsidies be subject to income verification — but they would have to get something from Republicans in return, sources said.
The so-called grown-ups (led by Paul Ryan) might initially balk at the debt limit extension, which they see an their ace in the hole to force big cuts to the budget, and the Tea Partiers will rebell because they see the government shutdown as their best weapon to force some kind of reversal of Obamacare. But you can sort of see how they could both be appeased with some upfront “concessions” and a backdoor agreement for more before the end of the year.
It’s impossible to know if they can get it together before Thursday (or ever…) But if they are to do it, I’d think it looks something like that. There’s no way we’re getting completely out of this corner this week. The best we can hope for is that they kick the biggest threat down the road and the government shutdown is the field on which they continue to negotiate. It’s bad, but it’s less bad than a default and the Democrats probably have to use at least some of their leverage to avoid that.
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