Congressional Democrats are poised to vote on raising the national debt ceiling from $12 trillion to $13.8 trillion. The vote could come before the end of the year, an effort to minimize possible political blowback in the 2010 midterm elections. The story elicited a number of comments by lawmakers. In an interview with Politico, House Appropriations Chair David Obey said, “…the credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it.”
Groups of conservative Democrats critical of runaway spending have emerged in both the House and Senate. One such member is North Dakota’s Sen. Kent Conrad, chair of the Senate Budget Committee. Conrad teamed up with New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg to introduce legislation to create a budget task force (press release) to plot a more sustainable fiscal course.
This afternoon, China’s top climate diplomat, Xie Zhenhua, asked the US to commit to cutting at least 40% of its carbon output by 2020. The tough talk came in an interview with Zhenhua at Copenhagen. So far, much of the focus in Copenhagen has been on China and the United States, the two key players in the negotiations. Many speculate that if the two powers cannot come to an agreement, the Copenhagen Conference will fail to produce any substantive accord…
