Congressional Leaders Race to End Stalemate

Maybe they'll get a deal today. Word is Speaker John Boehner's caving.

At WSJ, "Leaders Adding Final Touches to Senate Budget Deal: Plan Would Temporarily Raise Debt Ceiling, Reopen Government":

Senate leaders in both parties were putting the finishing touches on an agreement to temporarily raise the nation's debt ceiling and fully reopen the government as lawmakers raced to resolve their budget stalemate and calm anxious financial markets.

The expected Senate deal would avoid a potential U.S. debt default, but it would only set new deadlines for lawmakers to make decisions about the long-term course of fiscal policy.

As outlined by aides, the deal would fund federal agencies through Jan. 15 and extend the nation's borrowing authority through Feb. 7. A negotiating committee would be charged with devising plans for longer-term solutions.

Lawmakers have been hoping to pass legislation—or at least set Congress on a clear path to doing so—before Thursday, which many officials and investors view as a landmark moment. The Treasury says that on that day it will exhaust its emergency borrowing powers and be left with only about $30 billion to pay the nation's bills, enough to last for a week or two.

House GOP leaders on Wednesday were contemplating taking up the expected deal from the Senate for a vote later Wednesday, according to aides from both parties. That would send the bill to the Senate in a fashion enabling the Senate to skip some of its time-consuming procedures to ensure a quicker final vote.

"What I'm hearing is they may move first," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) said of the House.

Yeah, they're gonna move. See Ed Morrissey, "Breaking: Boehner to take vote on Senate compromise 1st, pass it with Dem votes":

The endgame will arrive a little sooner than expected, thanks to a deal cut with John Boehner to take the first plunge on a bipartisan plan to end the budget standoff before the theoretical debt-ceiling limit gets breached. Instead of the Senate taking up the proposal from Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell first, Boehner will allow a vote — without amendments — and have it pass with Democrats making up the difference from expected opposition from conservatives...

Yeah, well, even WSJ tired of the games, "The Debt Denouement":

The Beltway budget melodrama rolls on to its predictable and dreary end, with both sides now split over increasingly small differences. None of this is worth a partial government shutdown, much less the risk of a debt default, and both sides are looking like losers. Let's get it over with.

As we went to press Tuesday night, Republican leaders in the House had abandoned a plan to pass a debt-increase bill that was nearly identical to the one that Senate leaders agreed to on Monday. The main differences were funding the government only through December 15, rather than January 15 in the Senate bill, and a provision to require Members of Congress and their staff to live by ObamaCare's subsidies.

None of that was enough to please the small band of 20 or so House conservatives who have been all but running the House since this fiasco began. They refused to support House Speaker John Boehner and even Budget Chairman Paul Ryan. Another 30 or so Members were tired of getting kicked around by Heritage Action and Senator Ted Cruz and want the whole thing settled. With Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi keeping her troops in line for a no vote, GOP leaders pulled the bill from the floor.

The conservatives thus undermined whatever small leverage the House GOP had left. Without a united majority of 218 votes, Republicans might as well hand the Speaker's gavel to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. Senate leaders announced immediately that they would resume negotiating to finish a deal that they would bring to the floor as early as Wednesday...

Keep reading.

Maybe's it's time to lick the wounds of battle, but I'm not so downbeat as WSJ. I expect the administration's callous treatment of veterans, and its cold indifference to plight of average Americans, will come back to haunt the Democrats in November 2014. Republicans can wrap up this fight and then keep hammering away on Democrat weaknesses, the shitty economy and the morally bankrupt ObamaCare monstrosity.

More at Memeorandum.