House Passes Debt Ceiling Bill, Senate Vote Still To Come

By: Josh Robin

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Though only two members of the city’s congressional delegation supported it, a controversial piece of legislation that will raise the nation’s debt limit passed the House of Representatives Monday, and the Senate is poised to vote on it early Tuesday afternoon. NY1’s Josh Robin filed the following report.

Cheers could be heard on the floor of the House Monday for a bill no one said they loved and some even hated.

Republicans in the majority were overwhelmingly in favor, but only half of Democrats approved, including Gabrielle Giffords, who left her convalescence from January’s shooting to cast her vote.

How The NYC Delegation Voted

VOTED NO

Gary Ackerman (D)
Yvette Clarke (D)
Joseph Crowley (D)
Charles Rangel (D)
Carolyn Maloney (D)
Jerrold Nadler (D)
Edolphus Towns (D)
Eliot Engel (D)
Nydia Velazquez (D)
Jose Serrano (D)

VOTED YES

Michael Grimm (R)
Gregory Meeks (D)

They hope to avoid what some warned was economic Armageddon.

The plan targets two key goals: it cuts the deficit, and it raises the debt ceiling.

The United States has wiggle room for up to $2.4 trillion in additional bonds, all for about an equal amount in spending cuts.

It takes two steps to get there.

The first is up to members of Congress. Due to spending caps, they must slash more than $900 billion after interest savings are included.

About 45 percent will come from defense, veterans and homeland security funding.

The other 55 percent is up to the House and Senate to identify.

If they don't, everything gets lopped off equally, with the exception of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other mandatory spending.

A safe bet is that everything from transportation to schools to elderly care is on the cutting board.

The second step is a special committee, split by party and congressional chamber, that has to reach a plan by Thanksgiving.

If they don't, "triggers" set in that are seen as so equally unpalatable — military aid for Republicans and more cuts for Democrats — that they will prompt both sides to reach an agreement.

The bipartisan split makes agreement on raising taxes challenging.

In other words, that's led Republicans to declare themselves the victors.

"It's the beginning of reining in the out of control spending,” said Representative Michael Grimm, who was one of two in New York to support the bill that passed Monday.

Across the aisle, representing a couple of counties north, Representative Eliot Engel voted no.

"We need to make those in this country who can afford to pay a little more - like billionaires - pay a little more. There’s none of that in this bill, it's all on the cutting side,” said Engel.

Failing to act by Wednesday could have had a calamitous effect on the economy, but markets were actually still down on Monday, partially because of poor economic news.

Those numbers could have been worse if Congress hadn't acted at all.