By Nicole Gaudiano
July 26, 2011
Delawareans are among the many who bombarded congressional offices with phone calls Tuesday in response to President Barack Obama's suggestion that Americans lobby their lawmakers to compromise on a deficit reduction deal.
With next Tuesday's deadline to raise the government's borrowing authority approaching, websites and phone service for House lawmakers was disrupted as constituents weighed in on the debt- ceiling debate gripping Washington. At their peak, more than 40,000 calls flooded the Capitol switchboard between noon and 1 p.m. Tuesday - double the usual amount of calls received in an hour.
Rep. John Carney, D-Del., said his website crashed for about an hour Monday night after Obama's prime-time speech. Calls to Carney's offices in both Wilmington and Washington doubled.
"The switchboards lit up big time," Carney said.
Members of Delaware's Democratic congressional delegation say some constituents still support the tea-party backed "cut, cap and balance" approach, a plan passed by the House but not the Senate to cut and cap spending and seek a balanced budget amendment. But many more favor Obama's call for "shared sacrifice," with both spending cuts and increased revenue.
Sen. Chris Coons said he's received "particularly poignant" input from constituents who fear entitlement programs will be cut. A friend of his relying on unemployment insurance urged him to protect those payments.
"Some of these are really hard and very personal from people I've known my whole life," he said. "I don't sleep well, honestly."
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., also got an important call. He left the Democratic caucus lunch on Tuesday to take a call from Vice President Joe Biden, who wanted to know where Democratic senators stood on a deal.
Time is running out for a compromise as the nation moves closer to the Tuesday deadline, when Congress must raise the country's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit -- the debt ceiling -- or face defaulting on its bills. Such an event is expected to result in higher interest rates, further increasing the nation's debt.
Coons, who worked to keep a triple-A bond rating as New Castle county executive, said the potential downgrade of an estimated 7,000 municipal governments is among his worries if the sovereign debt rating dropped.
"The consequences of this default would touch every small business, every working family, every local government," he said. "No one who borrows money, whether it's to buy a car, to start a business, to finance a house or to build infrastructure for a county, would be immune from its effects, so I'm very, very concerned about it."
Republicans want to couple an increase in the debt ceiling with spending cuts of at least as much, but the sides are deadlocked over the terms.
The latest plans by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have some things in common, including approximately $1.2 trillion in cuts to discretionary spending over 10 years, a bipartisan committee to develop a deficit reduction plan and no tax increases. But a sticking point for Democrats is that the Boehner plan, which could get a vote in the House Wednesday, would only allow borrowing through early next year. Reid's plan would allow borrowing until after the 2012 election, which Democrats say would expose the markets to less turmoil and avoid a politically sensitive vote during election campaigns.
Coons said Reid's plan is the best path right now to getting over the default crisis. Constituents are telling him they favor this approach by a ratio of 3-to-1, he said.
The only way he would vote for a short-term increase is if it were to buy time to work out the details of a long-term, bipartisan plan.
"If all we're doing with a short-term extension is renewing the pain in another six months, and there's no clear consensus path forward six months from now, then it is reckless," he said.
Carper supports Reid's plan more than Boehner's but he isn't overly impressed with either. For instance, Reid's plan counts $1 trillion in savings over the next 10 years from cutting funding for foreign military operations, which he said would "just pretend like what's going on in Afghanistan or Iraq or Libya isn't taking place."
"That's a pretty good sense of imagination," he said, laughing.
Carper said Congress should extend the debt ceiling for four weeks to give lawmakers a chance to debate the "Gang of Six" proposal by a bipartisan group of senators, which would reduce the deficit by cutting spending and raising revenue by reducing tax loopholes. He thinks that plan, if the leaders would bring it up for a vote, would prevail. Passing such a deal in the Senate would build pressure on the House to follow suit, he said.
"Nothing else is as comprehensive, bipartisan and balanced," he said.
Some Delawareans may not want to wait much longer for a compromise. Some writers vented on Carney's Facebook page Tuesday.
"What would happen if their paychecks were at jeopardy," wrote one woman. "Stop the foolishness and get it DONE!"
Another man wrote, "I don't care how the Hell it gets done, just get it done. . . . If I don't get my disability check I will be out in the streets."
Carney said he is concerned about how the markets would interpret a short-term deal, which he said could also lead to a downgrade in the country's credit rating.
He won't vote for Boehner's plan but he thinks some combination of the Reid plan and an extended Boehner plan could be the path to compromise.
"What's right for the country is to have an increase in the debt ceiling that's tied to a plan that addresses not just the short term, but puts us on a path with budget cuts to having a more balanced approach," Carney said.
