Senate Rejects Republican 'Cut, Cap, Balance' Bill
The U.S. Senate it voted to table the Republican bill, known as "Cut, Cap, and Balance," in a 51-46 vote. The rejection had been expected even before the House passed it earlier this week. The proposal would cut $100 billion from the next budget and cap federal spending at 20 percent of national GDP, as well as require passing a Balanced Budget Amendment before raising the debt ceiling.
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As August 2, the date the U.S. Treasury will run out of money and default on its debt, approaches, President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders are working on a deal which includes "$4 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years, mainly through steep spending cuts but also including up to $1 trillion in new federal revenue," according to the Associated Press. But Republican John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said today that a deal to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling was not close. Indeed, as Boehner said, "it's going to be a hot weekend in Washington, D.C."
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Update (12:00 p.m. EDT): Speaking at a town hall meeting at the University of Maryland, Obama made the case for a debt deal that included some tax increases, which Republicans have largely opposed, as well as cuts. "If we only did it with cuts, if we did not get any revenue to help close this gap between how much money's coming in and how much money's going out, then a lot of ordinary people would be hurt and the country as a whole would be hurt and that doesn't make any sense. It's not fair." He also called for a compromise among members of Congress. "This notion that somehow if you're responsible and you compromise that somehow you're giving up your convictions, that's absolutely not true."
