US Congress split over debt issue

30 July 2011 Last updated at 02:03 GMT John Boehner: ''I stuck my neck out a mile to get an agreement with the president"

The US Congress has split along party lines as it seeks a solution to an ongoing deadlock over raising the nation's debt limit.

The House of Representatives passed a Republican bill proposed by Speaker John Boehner, but that was quickly killed by the Democratic-led Senate.

Senate leader Harry Reid is now seeking a vote on a rival plan he proposed.

The US risks defaulting on its financial obligations if a federal budget deal is not struck by 2 August.

Continued disagreements Harry Reid: ''It's time to come to together and compromise''

The Boehner plan includes some $900bn of spending cuts and would raise the debt ceiling by a similar amount.

However it would require another vote during mid-2012 and includes language in support of a so-called "balanced budget amendment" to the US constitution - both rejected by the White House and the Senate leadership.

The House vote was delayed from Thursday after Mr Boehner struggled to win over a number of staunchly conservative Republicans, including newly elected representatives who back the Tea Party.

The plan eventually passed the House by 218-210, with 22 Republicans and every Democrat voting against.

Before the vote, Mr Boehner said the plan advanced the "great cause" of a balanced budget amendment.

Mr Boehner appeared heated in front of his colleagues in the House, slamming his fist on a podium on Friday evening and calling for lawmakers to pass his proposal.

Mr Boehner said Republicans had tried their "level best" to reach a deal.

"I stuck my neck out a mile to get an agreement with the president of the United States," Mr Boehner said, referring to negotiations with President Barack Obama that twice broke down.

"My colleagues, I can tell you I have worked with the president and the administration since the beginning of this year to avoid being in this spot," he added.

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It's odds-on the president won't have to veto the Republican plan, as the Tea Party seems to have done the job for him”

End Quote Mark Mardell BBC North America editor "A lot of people in this town can never say yes," Mr Boehner said.

Shortly after the House passed its bill, the Democratic-led Senate voted to reject the Boehner plan in a late-evening vote on Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused the Republicans of seeking to filibuster, or delay, proceedings by forcing a vote on his rival plan to achieve a 60-vote "supermajority" before passing.

Speaking after the Senate adjourned for the night, he accused his Republican counterpart of not being willing to negotiate.

"Unless there is a compromise, or they accept my bill, we're heading for economic disaster," he said.

The US government will start running out of money to pay all its bills unless a $14.3tn (?8.79tn) borrowing limit is increased by Tuesday.

Democrats say the Republican bill as passed would cause immeasurable damage to the economy because it would force Congress to vote on another extension of the debt ceiling early in 2012, a time when presidential election campaigns will be in full swing.

'Out of time'

The White House quickly responded to the passage of Mr Boehner's bill, calling for a "compromise that avoids default and lays the basis for balanced deficit reduction".

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The time for putting party first is over. The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now”

End Quote Barack Obama US President Earlier, the White House said Mr Boehner was taking a dangerous approach with his proposal.

"Amend the constitution or default is a highly dangerous game to play," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama accused House Republicans of pursuing a partisan bill that would force Washington into another debt limit fight within months.

"There are plenty of ways out of this mess, but we are almost out of time," Mr Obama said.

"The time for putting party first is over," he added. "The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now."

Analysts predict a last-minute scramble for a compromise and razor-edge votes in both chambers, with the high-stakes game of legislative brinkmanship expected to continue all weekend.

The president backs Mr Reid's proposal, which would cut $2.2tn from deficits and raise the debt ceiling by $2.7tn.

The Boehner and Reid plans overlap in key ways, such as trimming spending over 10 years and shunning President Obama's call for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.

Analysts have said international markets would be shaken if the US defaults and runs out of money to pay its bills.

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Netanyahu addresses US Congress

24 May 2011 Last updated at 16:19 GMT Mr Netanyahu said Israel would not return to its "indefensible" pre-1967 borders Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told a joint session of the US Congress the US and Israel have no better friends than one another.

"Israel has always been pro-American, Israel will always be pro-American," Mr Netanyahu said.

His remarks come four days after he opened a rift with US President Barack Obama over the direction of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Israel enjoys strong bipartisan support in the US Congress.

"In an unstable Middle East, Israel is the one anchor of stability. In a region of shifting alliances, Israel is America's unwavering ally," Mr Netanyahu said

And he thanked the US and President Barack Obama for killing al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, saying "good riddance".

'Startling fact'

Mr Netanyahu also gave a vigorous defence of Israel's place in the Middle East, describing it as an outpost of democracy and freedom in the region.

And he said that of 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only the one million living in Israel "are truly free".

"This startling fact reveals a basic truth," he said. "Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East, Israel is what is right about the Middle East."

Mr Netanyahu was briefly interrupted by a heckler who denounced Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. He paused used the point to applaud American democracy, saying no one in the "farcical parliaments" of Tehran and Tripoli would be permitted such a protest.

"This is real democracy," he said.

Mr Netanyahu praised America's programme of sanctions against Iran, where President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel's destruction.

And Mr Netanyahu praised Mr Obama's declaration that the US was determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and urged the US to hold up the threat of military action deter that outcome.

"The more Iran believes that all options are on the table, the less the chance of confrontation," he said. "And this is why I ask you to continue to send an unequivocal message that the US will never permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

"If history has taught the Jewish people anything, it is that we must take calls for our destruction seriously. We are a nation that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust. When we say 'never again', we mean 'never again'".

He said he remained committed to a two-state solution to the conflict in which an independent Palestinian state sits alongside a Jewish state.

"I'm willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace," he said. "We seek a peace where [the Palestinians] will be neither Israel's subjects nor its citizens."

But he said the future border could not rest at Israel's "indefensible" 1967 lines, because many Israelis now live in suburbs of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem beyond Israel's pre-1967 territory.

He said the precise border must be drawn at the negotiating table, but said it would be different from the 1967 border.

Noting that Israel accepts Jewish immigrants from across the world, he said the Palestinian refugees who fled Israel in 1948 must be accepted into a future independent Palestinian state.

"The Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel," he said.

About 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, areas that lie behind Israel's pre-1967 borders.

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