POTUS to address nation, 9 pm tonight, re stalemate over avoiding default

July 25, 2011

Senate and House Split as Obama Is to Address Budget

By CARL HULSE, JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON – The Democratic Senate and Republican House put themselves on a legislative collision course Monday as they moved forward with significantly different plans on how to raise the debt limit and avert a possible federal default next week.

Trying to break the impasse, President Obama planned to address the nation Monday night in televised remarks from the Oval Office of the White House.

The president’s decision to intervene comes after House Republican leaders pushed for a vote Wednesday on a two-step plan that would allow the federal debt limit to immediately be raised by about $1 trillion and tie a second increase next year to the ability of a new joint Congressional committee to produce more deficit reduction.

But top Senate Democrats called the proposal a “non-starter” and said they would advance their own plan to reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion and raise the debt ceiling until after next year’s elections, saying it met the conditions that Republicans had laid down during the ongoing debt fight.

“We’re about to go over a cliff here,” Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who serves as majority leader, said Monday afternoon as he outlined his proposal.

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/us/politics/26fiscal.html?_r=1&hp