...Mr. Boehner, who would have to steer a compromise through the House, said he based his confidence on the prospect of an agreement on the sense that “we’re dealing with reasonable, responsible people who want this crisis to end as quickly as possible.” ...NYT
This interactive graphic shows what the polls show. The reasonable, responsible people -- the ones whose votes are being overlooked -- don't work on Capitol Hill.
And this one shows, in red and blue, where the debt comes from.
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In a pathetic effort to unshoulder their responsibility as members of Congress, Congressional Republicans handed the job over to the White House last night.
President Obama is back at the center of the drama. Only this time, he’s been dragged back on terms that are anything but his own. Now he’s forced to try to come up with a solution over the next 48 hours that has not been apparent in weeks of negotiations.
The announcement of Obama’s reemergence came late Saturday — not in a triumphant announcement from the White House but from Republican congressional leaders who suddenly seemed eager to hand the baton back to a president they have spent weeks accusing of failing to lead. ...WaPo
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The countries we do business with are shocked. According to Think Progress, one of the more temperate comments came from China: "'We understand the politics,' a Chinese official said, 'but your government’s continued recklessness is astonishing.'" Xinhua writes that "given the United States’ status as the world’s largest economy and the issuer of the dominant international reserve currency, such political brinksmanship in Washington is dangerously irresponsible."
One conservative German newspaper has this:
[T]here are few signs of self-doubt or self-awareness in the U.S. … [The Tea Party movement] sees the other side as their enemy.
The very group the rest of the world sees as the guilty party -- the tea party -- are sublimely unaware of or appalled at the extent to which our prosperity and our politics have become inseparable from the rest of the world. In that, the tea partyers are also at odds with the American people.
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Leader Nancy Pelosi gave one helluva speech yesterday, at least to judge from the sound bytes. Wait... here's the whole shebang.
Steve Benen just posted a response to the Pelosi speech, a response with which I agree wholeheartedly.
Why did I like this so much? It’s not just the message, which happens to accurate. It’s also because Pelosi said something provocative, drew the disdain of her rivals, and said it again. It was almost as if Pelosi were saying, “Oh, you didn’t like that one? Then let me repeat it for you.”
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As we continue to eat into our cash supply over the debate, the figures only gets worse. On July 18th, the Federal government had $114,326 billion in cash in the back. As of today, it has only $54 billion, which Business Insider pointed out is $2 billion less than Bill Gates. Henry Blodget at Business Insider commented, "By early next week, if Congress can't get its act together, the United States will have less cash than Google. Then Salesforce.com. Then, eventually, Pets.com." ...Atlantic
