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GOP will nix bipartisan 'Gang of Six' debt proposal because Obama took credit for it, source says
President Obama's embrace of a bipartisan breakthrough on contentious debt talks may have doomed the deal.
Obama went out of his way to hail a $4 trillion proposal unveiled Tuesday by a bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators, calling it "a very significant step" that mirrors the balanced, pain-for-all approach he has pressed in negotiations to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and curb runaway spending.
But a high-ranking Republican aide told Politico.com that Obama's cheerleading would immediately turn off conservatives in the Republican-controlled House.
"Background guidance: The President killed any chance of its success by 1) Embracing it. 2) Hailing the fact that it increases taxes. 3) Saying it mirrors his own plan," a GOP leadership aide e-mailed to Politico's Playbook.
Obama Thursday had crowed about the prospects of the "Gang of Six" deal crafted by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Mark Warner (Va.), and GOPers Tom Coburn (Okla.), Mike Crapo (Idaho) and Saxby Chmabliss (Ga.).
"The framework that they put forward is broadly consistent with the approach that I've urged," Obama told reporters, understating his satisfaction at the credibility the bipartisan proposal lent to his plan.
Obama reiterated he's ready to sign "a tough package that includes both spending cuts, modifications to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare ... and would include a revenue component."
The new and potentially crucial difference? "We now have a bipartisan group of senators who agree with that balanced approach," Obama said. "And we've got the American people who agree with that balanced approach."
The proposal raised hopes that the political will for meaningful compromise - and dodging an Aug. 2 deadline for avoiding a debt default - may be near.
"We're closer now than we've ever been," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters after Obama left the briefing room.
House Republicans have steadily balked at any "grand bargain" that raises revenues - meaning taxes - and the House Tuesday, in a 234-to-190 vote, pushed through a $6 trillion package of spending cuts tied to a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.
That measure is dead on arrival in the Senate.
Obama has said he would veto it and added yesterday that the bill would never reach his desk anyway, but said he did "understand the need" for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring the bill to a vote.
Translation: At least 100 House Republicans, including all 87 freshmen who have pledged never to back a tax hike, need the political cover of a tough if symbolic vote to satisfy ideological purists like Tea Party backers before even considering a compromise.
Still, a deadlock-ending deal is far from certain, and the clock is ticking away.
"We don't have any more time to engage in symbolic gestures, we don't have any more time to posture," Obama said in a clear slap at GOP hard-liners.
Source: nydailynews.com