Band Jockeying

Paul Ryan’s solution for our debt solution held up only with the Conservative segments of the Republican coalition. Reid’s plan only appealed to Democrats and the remaining plans garnered support or disdain from many different factions within Congress, but none of them had the votes to pass.

Now, 11th hour negotiations have been happening in the offices of Congressional leaders and at the White House to find an 11th hour deal that can get the 60 votes needed in the Senate and the 214 votes needed in the house.

With prior plans appealing only to left or right segments of Congress, the current negotiations look to be forming a plan that will focus on creating a large coalition of members of Congress. It will however leave out the far-left and far-right.

By pandering to the middle, Congressional leaders can garner the number of votes that they need without kowtowing to the staunchest factions in their parties. They are actually writing off a portion of their base to achieve the end goal – a debt ceiling deal.

As expected, the Tea Party Conservatives and the Progressive Caucus won’t vote for the compromise. As long as they can keep enough of their centrist factions together, a coalition made up of both parties can pass a negotiated deal.