Senate will defeat any debt bill passed by the House

BULLETIN: The scheduled time for a vote on Speaker Boehner's compromise debt limit and spending cut plan came and went at 6 p.m.

House Minority Leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi got the last word in and yielded back her time; then the Republican leadership made a motion to postpone the vote on the controversial plan at 5:40 p.m. ET.

Mrs. Pelosi said, “Fifty-one percent of the American people support the balanced approach favored by the President; only about 19% of Americans support the plan presented here.”

It was not clear if the Speaker had arranged the number of votes needed to pass a plan hammered out in negotiations with the Tea Party following President Barack Obama's outright rejection of GOP efforts to negotiate with Democrats on the matter.

The U.S. House of Representatives, that glorious body in whose chamber the words, "In God We Trust" are inscribed upon the wall, returned to the important business of naming Post Offices in far-flung corners of the Empire such as Peoria, Illinois, and Guam. - The Legendary

(click the paragraph for a cogent analysis of the situation)

Washington - If Speaker John Boehner finds the support to pass a measure to raise the debt limit and cut spending by an equal amount, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to immediately call the bill to the floor of that chamber and defeat it.

A vote on the plan that would increase the U.S. Borrowing limit by up to $900 billion while cutting more than $900 billion in spending over the next decade will come to a House vote at 6 p.m.

The matter is far from settled, according to knowledgeable observers.

It is still not clear if the Speaker will be able to muster enough support to pass his plan as 50 Republican representatives remain undecided, 17 will vote against it, and 9 are leaning that way.

Mr. Boeher will need 216 votes to pass his bill and can afford to lose the support of 24 Democrats.

Said Senator Reid on the floor of the upper chamber today, “It will be defeated” when it comes to an immediate vote if passed in the House. “No democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now.” (click here for the minority report on this matter from de islands, mon - off sho')