U.S. House Passes Short-Term Debt Ceiling Increase : Social Security Checks maybe : July 29, 2011

UPDATED : Senate kills latest House debt measure
By The Associated Press - Associated Press July 29 2011

..WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has killed the latest effort by the House to raise the government's borrowing cap.

Democrats and several Republicans killed the GOP measure by a 59-41 vote Friday night, just minutes after it arrived from the House. Democrats opposed the measure because it would require another painful debt-limit debate early next year.

The move continues a standoff over the debt limit but could set the table for negotiations this weekend on compromise legislation that could pass the Democratic Senate and the GOP-controlled House before an Aug. 2 deadline to prevent a potentially disastrous default on U.S. obligations like interest payments and Social Security checks.

The measure would have immediately lifted the government's borrowing cap by $900 billion. It barely squeaked through the House.

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The House of Representatives on Friday approved a plan for a short-term increase in the debt ceiling and cuts in spending, ending a week of intense fighting among Republicans and shifting the end game of the debate to the Senate.

The vote was 218-210, leaving House Speaker John A. Boehner with 22 Republicans who were unwilling to support his efforts to get a bill approved.

Urging passage for the bill, an emotional Mr. Boehner angrily accused President Obama and his Democratic allies of negotiating in bad faith for weeks and called the bill the only way to “end this crisis now.”

“All they would do was criticize what I put out there,” Mr. Boehner said, his voice rising during a rare appearance on the floor. “I stuck my neck out a mile to get an agreement with the president of the United States. I stuck my neck out a mile. I put revenues on the table.”

He added: “A lot of people in this town can never say yes.”

Democrats in the House sought to embarrass the Republican majority by amending Mr. Boehner’s legislation to require that any deficit reduction be done first by closing tax subsidies for oil companies and corporate jet owners. The amendment was quickly rejected by the Republican majority.

“We face a self-inflicted crisis and the majority’s solution is no solution at all,” Representative Louise Slaughter of New York said during debate before the bill passed.

Even as it passed, the Democrat-controlled Senate prepared to kill the legislation within hours. Earlier on Friday, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York called Mr. Boehner’s legislation an “absurd, absurd proposition.”

Mr. Boehner earned raucous applause from his Republican conference despite days of resistance from some of his most conservative members tied his legislative strategy in knots. Mr. Boehner won over enough opponents by amending his legislation to require passage of a balanced budget amendment before the debt ceiling could be increased next year.

In his remarks, Mr. Boehner called the measure imperfect, but accused Mr. Obama and the Democrats in the Senate of failing to produce a competing plan to address the debt crisis.

“To the American people, I would say: we tried our level best,” Mr. Boehner said. “We have tried to do our best for our country, but some people still say no.”

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As posted by The New York Times By MICHAEL D. SHEAR July 29, 2011,