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UPDATE: House Vote Falls Through

Miguel Arreola |
October 15, 2013 | 3:30 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

(Crazy George/Creative Commons)
(Crazy George/Creative Commons)

UPDATE: The House decides not to vote tonight. House Speaker John Boehner is unable to accrue enough votes to push the proposed measures through to the Senate.

Without a vote by the House of Representatives, the U.S. government moves a day closer to default.

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The House, after much deliberation from the House Republicans, have decided to vote Tuesday evening for a revision of the Senate's plan to reopen the U.S. government.

The Congress is moving quickly to avoid the Thursday deadline that would cause the first U.S. default in history.

According to CNN, the House proposal includes:

-Funding the government through December 15 to end the partial shutdown that entered its third week.

-Increase the federal debt ceiling until February 7.

-A provision demanded by Tea Party conservatives that would prohibit federal subsidies for the President, officials in his administration, members of Congress and their respective staff in buying health insurance under Obama's signature health care reforms.

-Dropped demands to include two other provisions related to Obamacare. One would have delayed a tax on medical devices proponents say is needed to help pay for the Affordable Care Act and the other would have tightened income verification of those seeking subsidies to purchase health insurance.

- Forbid the Treasury from taking what it calls extraordinary measures to prevent the government from defaulting as cash runs low

 Ending the shutdown would require acts of bipartisanship in the House. The House Republicans, namely House Speaker John Boehner, have been working relentlessly to garner enough Republican votes to pass the proposed measure.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned the Republicans that “if [the bill] is as described, they will need 100 percent of Republican votes.”

The Congress faces increased pressure to make a deal avoiding a government default, which could be catastrophic to the country’s economy, because there is a strong possibility of a drop in the government’s credit rating. According to Reuters, “Fitch Ratings warned on Tuesday it could cut the sovereign credit rating of the United States from AAA citing the political brinkmanship over raising the federal debt ceiling.” The last time the United States' credit rating was downgraded was in 2011. Furthermore, economists believe that increasing the debt ceiling until February 7, as is being proposed, could bring more harm to the U.S. economy.

The Congress would be fiddling with the stability of the U.S. economy by failing to reach an agreement before Thursday. Should the House not pass the measure tonight, the consequences could be dire for the American public.

Reach Executive Producer Miguel Arreola here.


 
 



 

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