House Passes Cut, Cap and Balance Debt Measure

The vote total was 234-190. It's not expected to get through the Senate, I guess, but hey, it's a plan. In related news, Senator DeMint says that Obama is only backing the "gang of six" plan because the GOP is on the move:

"I don't know enough about the Gang of Six proposal, but I do know the only reason the president is stepping up and saying he might support this is that Republicans are now on the offense with a plan that would increase the debt limit in a way that Moody's and S&P would recognize as credible long-term deficit reduction," DeMint said Tuesday on Fox Business Network.

. . .

"There is only one proposal that actually is written that will be voted on, and that is the ‘cut, cap and balance’ proposal," DeMint said.

I don't know enough about the gang of six proposal either. But from Drew's post earlier today, it seems a little vague, a little aspirational--a little long on promise and short on specifics. And how many times has the GOP been lead down the primrose path on promised future spending cuts? Reagan and Bush 41, from what I can recall. I'm sure there are others. Because of this, I'm leaning toward not liking it, and I'm starting to wonder whether Senator Coburn deserves the name "Dr. No." But we'll see.

Added: Representative Paul Ryan is on Fox right now, and he sounds more than a little skeptical about the gang of six plan. He doesn't like the backdoor way it miraculously appeared today. Again, it's hard to see why Senator Coburn is involved in this.

posted by rdbrewer at 09:00 PM

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