If you’re shaking off the cobwebs from a few days at the beach and trying to figure out what happened over the weekend on the debt talks, it’s almost easier to ignore what happened the last three days and just fast forward to where we are now.
Still no deal. Still no sign that a deal is imminent.
So where does that leave us?
By any objective measure, you’d have to say dead in the water. But there remains a general sense — one the markets seem to share — that Washington really can’t be so dumb as to let default actually happen. So here’s where the attention is focused today:
Senate Democrats and House Republicans are each working on separate debt ceiling deals. Fair to say they are not compatible plans. But if you had to put your money on one plan making it through both chambers, it would have to be a version of the proposal Harry Reid is working on that would raise the debt ceiling through 2012, cut spending by nearly $3 trillion and not raise any taxes.
A few weeks ago, that was exactly what Republicans were demanding and would have been seen as complete capitulation by Democrats. But so far, Republican reaction to the proposal has been muted. Reid is expected to present his proposal to his Senate Democratic colleagues sometime today.
House Republicans meet early this afternoon. Speaker Boehner says he wants to release his plan by the end of the day (he said that yesterday, too, by the way but nothing came of it). House Democrats are meeting late this afternoon. We should have a better read after those two meetings conclude.
