Some congressional Republicans are beholden to Grover Norquist and his anti-tax pledge and won’t sign off on a “sensible” agreement to raise the debt ceiling, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) charged on Tuesday.
“They’re afraid of a primary fight” if they agree to anything resembling a tax hike, the second-ranking Senate Democrat said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Continue Reading“They’re afraid [because] they signed some tax pledge to some fellow here in Washington” – Norquist – “that if they somehow talk about revenue, they’re going to talk about a primary fight and lose,” Durbin said. “They don’t want to face that.”
In his speech Monday, President Barack Obama said that he and “a lot of the new members of Congress” — Republican freshmen, many aligned with the tea party movement — “and I don’t see eye-to-eye on many issues. But we were each elected by some of the same Americans for some of the same reasons.”
Durbin touted the proposal that the Senate’s Gang of Six put forward early last week that would have found ways to raise revenues and reform entitlement programs, and which has gotten the support of 32 senators, almost equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. Those members think the “approach is a grown-up, responsible, thoughtful way to deal with the long-term deficit” and “know this is the path.”
The problem, Durbin said, is “this notion we cannot touch hedge fund managers, that these hedgehogs can’t even pay their fair share of taxes,” which is typified by Norquist’s pledge.
Even “a sensible approach” like the one offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is getting pushback from some Republicans because of political fears, Durbin said.
Later, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said on MSNBC that plans offered by Reid and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are not “that far apart.”
He said the White House has been removed from negotiations and predicted whatever debt ceiling deal passes will germinate from the House.
“For all intents and purposes, this is now a congressional play,” Thune said. “The calculation right now is what gets 217 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate.”
Thune, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, said President Obama and members of Congress will soon feel immense pressure from rating agencies and Wall Street to reach a solution.
“The rating agencies and the markets,” he said, “right now they’re going to have a lot of leverage because they’re the ones that are going to bless what happens here.”
With the possibility of U.S. default on its loans coming in just a week, both parties must come together to protect the country.
“This battle needs to be put behind us and we need to move forward,” he said. “We need to create jobs and get this economy cooking.”
“We’re going to move forward with the extension of so it doesn’t become a political football,” Durbin added. “People say, well, this is all about the next campaign. No, it’s about the economy.”
The bond rating agencies have said “that if you lurch from month to month in another one of these pitch battles in Washington, we’re going to downgrade the American economy,” leading to higher interest rates.
“Reach a compromise, let’s move forward,” he said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/59912.html#ixzz1TExuMkwy
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