HUFFINGTON POST
Whatever deal emerges from overnight negotiations in the Senate, Republican lawmakers said they weren't sure it could pass quickly enough in their chamber to avert a default -- or that it would ever see the light of day in the House.
We’ve got a name for it in the House: it’s called the Senate surrender caucus,” said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “Anybody who would vote for that in the House as Republican would virtually guarantee a primary challenger.”
The Treasury Department has warned that sometime on Thursday it may no longer have enough cash on hand to pay all the nation's obligations, setting up a potential default that economists have warned repeatedly may have catastrophic economic consequences.
As of Monday evening, the contours of a deal included reopening the government through Jan. 15 and extending the debt limit until Feb. 15. Both chambers also would have to appoint representatives for a budget conference that would end on or around Dec. 15, with the goal of agreeing to framework for deficit-reduction. Changes to President Barack Obama's health care law would be minimal:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said there had been "tremendous progress" earlier in the day. His Republican counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), agreed.
N.Y. TIMES
If a deal is not completed by the end of Thursday, Treasury officials have said, the United States government will have exhausted “extraordinary measures” for managing its debt, meaning that its ability to pay its bills will be limited to the uneven flow of cash that comes into the Treasury on a daily basis. On some days, officials warned, the amount coming in will be less than the amount that is supposed to go out.
But even that deadline provides no real sense of clarity. It remains unknown how long the federal government could operate beyond that day, what programs it might choose to suspend, or how quickly the global financial markets would pronounce judgment.
As they drafted their deal, Senate negotiators in both parties were hoping that House Republican leaders would have no choice but to let a bipartisan agreement come to a vote, even if it could pass only with votes from Democrats and a minority of the Republican majority. But John A. Boehner, the House speaker, provided no assurances on Monday that an arrangement hammered out by his Senate colleagues could pass muster among his conservatives.
Senate Republicans had pushed for an agreement that included a provision to delay or repeal a tax on medical devices, but that became a sticking point in the negotiations and will almost certainly be excluded from the final deal, Senate aides said. But the deal is likely to include a one-year delay of another tax associated with the Affordable Care Act known as the reinsurance tax, which employers pay.
Another Republican-backed measure likely to be in the deal would require tighter income verification standards for people who receive subsidies under the new health care law.
But with the country just hours from what could be a crippling default, many Republicans believe that Mr. Boehner will have no choice but to ignore his most vocal members and put whatever passes the Senate up for a vote.