WORLD
U.S. Senate kills Boehner`s debt plan as deadline nears
Baku, July 30 (AZERTAC). The U.S. Senate has rejected a debt bill passed just hours earlier by the House of Representatives, with Democrats and Republicans showing little sign of compromise as the country faces potential economic chaos.
President Barack Obama warned a hyper-partisan Congress that the country was "almost out of time."
Both the White House and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had spoken against the plan, drafted by House Speaker John Boehner, so its passing by the House was largely symbolic.
Boehner`s bill passed 218 to 210, with no Democratic support and losing 22 Republicans. The plan included a constitutional balanced budget amendment -- a demand from the so-called Tea Party element -- which would certainly not get past the Senate.
The vote exposed a rift in the Republican party, as Boehner twice delayed the vote to revise it to win support from the most conservative members of his party.
The White House immediately shot down the plan, calling it "moot and irrelevant."
Meanwhile, Reid has been working on a bill in the Senate to cut spending by $2.2 trillion and raise the debt limit by $2.7 trillion, meeting the president`s terms.