debt ceiling

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi announced on Twitter that she has selected James Clyburn of South Carolina, Xavier Becerra of California, and Chris van Hollen of Maryland to serve on the joint select committee on deficit reduction (aka the supercommittee).

TWS: Wisconsin Republicans beat back Big Labor in recall elections.

New York Times: A terrifying window into Tom Friedman's imagination

Politico: "Harry Reid super committee picks in place"

There's a fascinating story over at The Hill that was published yesterday, "How John Boehner escaped disaster." I don't think we should get ahead of ourselves here, but certainly there's a storyline emerging here that when it comes to the art of the deal, Boehner is one of the more capable politicians of the era.

George Will: "The debt deal and Obama’s 2012 problem"

Washington Post: "Iraq’s troop decision encouraging, U.S. says"

With the debt ceiling thing done, the scribes are now straining for the illuminating metaphor and “terrorism,” it seems, is the preferred choice. One New York Times columnist writes that “the Tea Party Republicans have waged jihad on the American people,” and you had to wonder if he would have accused even Osama bin Laden of that. Another Times columnist describes the Tea Party as “the Hezbollah faction” of the Republican Party. Maureen Dowd, the Times’s diva columnist went with a different, idiosyncratic metaphor. The whole thing, she writes, was like a horror movie, a “gory, Gothic melodrama on the Potomac … without the catharsis.”

Now that the Great Debt Ceiling Deal has become the law of the land, it’s time to consider what just happened to America, and in particular to America’s armed forces. On the one hand, it’s complicated. On the other hand, it’s ugly.

James Kirchik: "Why Islamist terror dwarfs Breivik's brand: Almost nobody supports 'Christianist' violence"

Jonah Goldberg: "To Hell with You People"

According to the Budget Control Act, the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the so-called supercommittee, must be formed within 14 days of the bill becoming law. Since President Obama just signed the law, Congress has until August 16, two weeks from today, to fill the slots. The next question Democrats and Republicans will need to answer is, which of their members will they select for the supercommittee? 

Speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House Tuesday afternoon, President Barack Obama tepidly praised Congress for passing the debt limit deal that he said will “avert a default that would have devastated our economy.” The president called the bill an “important first step” in reducing the deficit.

Much to the frustration of the press corps and the country at large, President Obama went nearly a year without giving a press conference at a time when the country was in a rather precarious state economically and politically. Lately, however it seems that Obama has decided that the debt ceiling debate is the time to reengage -- no doubt the looming campaign has something to do with this decision.

Just after noon today, the Senate easily passed the debt ceiling deal bill, 74-26. The House of Representatives passed the bill last night, and the president will presumably sign the bill today, the deadline set by the Treasury Department for raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default.

The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon. No suspense there. But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit reduction that the legislation creates.