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Originally Posted by Azure
What does the Reid plan do insofar as closing loopholes and revising the tax code?
The media isn't doing such a great job of covering the specifics of either plan.
At this point the Republicans are looking pretty stupid if the only thing holding them back from voting on the Reid plan is not having a two part raising of the debt ceiling. Its very obvious that its a political issue too.
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The Reid plan is just a blank check for Obama through the next election. It doesn't do anything productive.
The Boehner plan of course creates a huge problem for Obama by forcing a look at the books around Christmas which would play against his election bid. It also forces the Senate to vote on a balanced budget amendment before Christmas. If the Senate votes down the amendment it might hurt some of their election bids. That's why they have avoided voting on the measure.
On the productive side it does provide some time for the government to look into the tax code and also make some decisions regarding entitlements. Even if there was a will to address those things now there is no time left.
The Tea party believes they were elected to balance the budget and they aren't too interested in even Boehner's plan of delaying the hard decisions by allowing the Government to borrow a little until Christmas. I suppose if Aug 2 comes and Obama has to shut down most government operations it will be a powerful incentive to get something done. Also, even if the government's rating is downgraded on the second it isn't unreasonable to think that rating might be restored whenever a plan is finally adopted. Surely whatever they came up with under that pressure would be deeper and more meaningful then anyone has come up with so far.