In summary: "short-term increase...", spending cuts, no mention of tax hikes, and will "require passage of a balanced budget amendment before the debt ceiling can be increased next year." Also, Boehner is an ass and tries to attack Obama once more.The New York Times wrote:July 29, 2011, 6:25 PM
House Passes Short-Term Increase in Debt Ceiling
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
The House of Representatives on Friday approved a plan for a short-term increase in the debt ceiling and for cuts in spending, ending a week of intense fighting among Republicans and shifting the endgame of the debate to the Senate.
The vote was 218-to-210, leaving the speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, with 22 Republicans who were unwilling to support his bill.
Urging passage, 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 M. Slaughter, Democrat 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, who tied his legislative strategy in knots. Mr. Boehner won enough of them over by amending his legislation to require passage of a balanced budget amendment before the debt ceiling can 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.”
Fuck you, GOP.
