The US Senate was to hold a rare Sunday session yesterday as US politicians grapple with how to reopen the shuttered government and avoid a potentially calamitous failure to pay the country’s debt obligations.
With Republicans in the US House of Representatives blaming US President Barack Obama for the collapse of talks on extending the US borrowing authority, the Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders scrambled to piece together a bipartisan exit strategy.
The top senators showed an intensifying desire to end the two-week government shutdown and ease the threat of default with just three working days left before the US Department of the Treasury’s Thursday deadline for raising the debt ceiling.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Obama’s top wingman in the US Congress, said he held “extremely cordial, but very preliminary” talks on Saturday with top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.
McConnell suggested a bipartisan offer spearheaded by moderate Republican Senator Susan Collins as a workable template, but Reid rejected it.
The measure would extend borrowing authority into next year and fund the government for six months, but it would also repeal a medical device tax introduced under Obama’s healthcare law.
Democratic leaders were most concerned with the proposal to keep the existing automatic spending cuts, a move that would put agency spending at US$70 billion below what Democrats have proposed for next year.
With negotiations with the Republican-controlled House in tatters, Obama called a snap meeting at the White House with the Senate’s Democratic leadership to regroup.
Obama on Saturday made clear that he wanted a long-term deal, rejecting a proposal floated by House Speaker John Boehner suggesting a six-week extension to the US borrowing authority.
House Republicans fumed over the change of heart.
“They felt they were duped,” Representative John Fleming said of the House leadership as he exited a Republican caucus meeting. “They were led to believe that the president did want to negotiate in good faith and now they find out that that was never in the cards.”
House Republicans have argued for any budget deal to include concessions on funding Obama’s healthcare reforms, while Senate Republicans are more willing to reopen the government without such conditions.
Some lawmakers were adamant that the House — which does not meet again until today, when world markets might start seriously digesting Washington’s impasse — remains the linchpin for any agreement.
On Friday, the framework of a possible deal appeared to be forming that would see the government, shuttered since Oct. 1, fully reopened, possibly on an interim basis.
Both sides would also commit to work toward an elusive deal to tackle the deficit, rein in spending and possibly reform social programs and some aspects of the tax code.
However, perhaps sensing that it now has the upper hand in the fight, the White House has rejected the idea of extending the borrowing authority by just six weeks.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft