With US Debt Crisis Looming, Partisan Gridlock Hobbles Washington

July 26, 2011

House Speaker John Boehner, right, and Republican Conference Chairman Representative Jeb Hensarling, center, listen as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, left, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 26, 2011

With days to go before the United States faces what President Obama has called financial "Armageddon," the legislative path to averting a debt crisis appears murkier than ever.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid dismissed a proposal issued a day earlier by Republican House Speaker John Boehner that would trim the federal deficit and raise the debt ceiling in two stages.

"It is a short-term fix that Republicans know is untenable to Democrats in the White House and Congress," said Reid. "The Republican plan, they know, will not pass the Senate of the United States."

Moments later, the Senate's top Republican, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, blasted a plan put forth by Senator Reid that would also cut spending, but allow for a single, large-scale increase in federal borrowing authority.

"We will fight against anything that pretends to solve the problem, but does not," said McConnell. "The majority leader proposed a plan yesterday that is nothing more than an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people."

Although in the minority, Republicans have sufficient numbers to block a final vote on the Reid plan. The Reid plan is considered dead on arrival in the House of Representatives, as is the Boehner plan in the Senate.