US Congress impasse over debt crisis continues after Republicans revolt

John Boehner, leader of the House of Representatives, rewrites bill as America slides closer towards default territory The US Congress remained deadlocked over the debt crisis on Wednesday with Republicans in the House of Representatives unable to muster the votes needed to pass emergency legislation ahead of the deadline of Tuesday 2 August. House leader, John Boehner, faced with a revolt by hardline members of his own party, was having to hastily rewrite a bill he proposed earlier in the week to cut $3tn (£1.8tn) in federal government spending. He is hoping to put his new bill to the vote on Thursday after being forced to cancel a planned vote on Wednesday because of lack of numbers. The deepening internal divisions within Republican ranks add another layer to the uncertainty in Washington. Democratic and Republican leaders have so far been unable to reach any agreement on a deal to prevent America joining Ecuador, Ukraine and a handful of other countries that have defaulted in the last decade. Although the US treasury may be able to conjure up a short-term solution to prevent default on Tuesday, the row and the failure of the US to tackle its burgeoning debt problem could lose the US its triple-A credit rating, which would have damaging consequences for the country’s economy. Boehner needs to secure 217 votes to get his bill through, a job made more difficult by a report by the congressional budget office on Tuesday night that said his proposal would only reduce the deficit initially by $850bn, not $1.2tn as he had claimed. Hardline conservatives are demanding bigger cuts. Even if the bill was passed, the Democratic Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, promised the upper house would kill it and Barack Obama said he would veto it. A solution is likeliest to come from negotiations between Reid and the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. Reid is proposing raising the debt ceiling from $14.3tn until after the 2012 presidential elections in return for spending cuts of $1.7tn. John Boehner US Congress Barack Obama Republicans Democrats US politics United States US economy Global economy Ewen MacAskill guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.