Politico...
Pessimism clouds
deficit talks
By Jonathan Allen & Meredith Shiner
5/10/11
The Biden Group: It sounds like a think tank, a lobbying firm or even a
campaign consulting shop.
What it isn’t — at least not yet — is a vehicle for lawmaking. For now,
it’s just the latest in a series of high-profile gangs that can’t shoot
straight.
The deficit-reduction task force, led by Vice President Joe Biden and
populated by a mix of about a dozen administration officials and
Republican and Democratic House and Senate members, met for a second
time Tuesday amid great fanfare and low expectations. The result: not
much.
Two senators who were in the room for the talks said the group moved
from the opening statements of last week’s first meeting to discussing
more specific categories of spending.
“I suppose you could say that in some cases, there were actual programs
and categories of programs,” said Arizona’s Jon Kyl, the Senate
minority whip. “We’re not just sitting there doing crossword puzzles.”
Despite perfunctory proclamations of “progress” — Washington code for
lots of talk and little action — the players appear no closer to a deal
than they were after their first meeting last week. Democrats and
Republicans involved in the process say it’s not clear what the
president’s endgame is, much less the optimal outcome for each of the
individual congressional players.
Even Biden isn’t sure whether his own group can make a deal.
“Whether we can get to the finish line with this group is another
question,” Biden said Tuesday outside negotiations. “Everybody is being
straight, cordial. All the facts are being laid on the table. We were
going through what we agree on, what we disagree on.”
The president is pursuing other avenues even as the Biden group huddles
at Blair House, the 119-room, 35-bathroom mansion that serves as the
nation’s guesthouse for foreign dignitaries.
Obama plans to meet with the full Senate Democratic and Republican
caucuses Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. OMB Director Jack Lew
and Obama economic adviser Gene Sperling, two of the administration
officials at the table with the Biden group, addressed the Senate
Democratic lunch Tuesday afternoon, and Reid indicated that House
Democrats and Republicans will head to the White House soon to get
their face time with Obama, as well.
For the Biden group, there are no clear parameters for how to even
begin making a long-term deficit agreement, and it’s possible, if not
likely, that a grand bargain will quietly slip away as a small-scale
deficit reduction package is attached to a debt ceiling increase
instead.
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