The GOP-controlled House voted 285 to 144 to comfortably pass a three-month extension in the government’s borrowing authority … Senate Democratic leaders say they will take it up and pass the legislation as soon as they could (and the White House indicated that will not oppose). The bill would suspend the debt limit through May 18 and require both the House and the Senate to produce and pass a budget resolution in the meanwhile, with a deadline of April 15. If either chamber fails to pass a budget, its pay would be put into escrow – “No Budget, No Pay” goes the newly-minted Republican slogan to describe this strategy. NO-MAN’S LAND OF FISCAL POLICY “Pushing off the debt-ceiling battle until mid-May still poses major risks for the economy and may even heighten the severity of the economic impact,” National Journal’s Nancy Cook reports. Prolonging the debate … only keeps investors and markets nervous for a longer period of time.”
29
Jan 2013
