WASHINGTON (AP) — The debt showdown isn't just the dominant issue in Washington this summer — it's virtually the only one getting any attention in the nation's capital.
From the White House to Congress, the negotiations
over raising the U.S. debt limit have overshadowed or halted work on everything
from job creation to the military conflict in Libya to education reform. And
the debt debate has hamstrung President Barack Obama's ability to hit the road
to campaign and raise money for his re-election bid.
The frenetic pace of Washington often means what is
news one day can fade to the background the next. But rarely does a singular
issue suck up so much of the oxygen for such a sustained period.
Obama hasn't traveled outside Washington in July,
except for a weekend jaunt to the presidential retreat at Camp David. Lawmakers
who previously met with the president only sporadically came to the White House
for five straight days of talks, and will likely be back again before Aug. 2,
when the Treasury Department has warned the government will default unless the
debt ceiling is raised. The House and Senate both canceled weeklong breaks
planned for this month so they could stay in town to work on a deal.
The president has foreshadowed even more debt talk
disruptions through the rest of the summer if lawmakers don't reach a
compromise.
"We are not going to let Congress go on August
recess — have a one month vacation — while this problem doesn't get
solved," Obama said in a television interview Thursday.
With the Aug. 2 deadline looming, the all-consuming
nature of the talks is a near-imperative for lawmakers and the president.
But because Obama and congressional leaders have
essentially cleared their schedules to focus on the negotiations, other
pressing national priorities are being overshadowed, or shelved completely
until there's a debt deal.
The debate over U.S. military involvement in Libya
that was so contentious just last month, for example, has garnered barely a
mention from the White House or Congress in recent weeks. The issue hasn't gone
away — Republicans and anti-war Democrats still question Obama's legal
authority to keep the U.S. engaged in the Libya bombing campaign — but GOP
lawmakers have insisted that dealing with the debt should take precedence.
The nation's persistently high unemployment rate
did manage to grab the spotlight briefly last week, after a disastrous report
showed that job growth had nearly stalled. But there is little, if any,
progress being made on legislation that would directly lead to job creation.
Even passage of three key free-trade deals that both Obama and Republicans say
will support jobs in the U.S. has been stymied by the debt talks, with
administration officials putting some of the blame for the delay in ratifying
the agreements on the tense partisan atmosphere created by the debt ceiling
debate.
And forget about the overhaul of the controversial
No Child Left Behind education law the administration wanted lawmakers to
finish by the time the school year starts this fall. Congress has made so
little progress that the Education Department warned it's coming up with a plan
B to give schools relief from the federal mandates if lawmakers fail to act.
While Obama continues to be briefed and hold
private meetings on issues unrelated to the debt talks, the White House has
limited Obama's public appearances during the last week almost exclusively to
news conferences, statements or photo opportunities related to the
negotiations.
"They've made the very realistic and practical
judgment that those other things won't get attention," said Tony Fratto, a
White House spokesman under former President George W. Bush.
Still, Obama said Friday that he knows the American
people would rather see Washington focusing on issues that have more resonance
in their daily lives.
"We've been obsessing over the last couple of
weeks about raising the debt ceiling and reducing the debt and deficit,"
he said. "I tell you what the American people are obsessing about right
now is that unemployment is still way too high and too many folks' homes are
still underwater, and prices of things that they need, not just that they want,
are going up a lot faster than their paychecks are if they've got a job."
But lawmakers from both parties say it would be
difficult to address any of those issues if they can't get control of the
nation's debt and prevent a default.
"All of our guys know this is the moment to do
something really meaningful for the economy and our looming debt crisis,"
said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. "If this
debate is blocking out the sun, it's only because the debt problem is just that
large."
Lingering just below the surface of the debt debate
— and sometimes bubbling above it — is the fast-approaching 2012 election. As
long as Obama is stuck in Washington working on a deal, he won't be traveling
to politically important battleground states to sell the public on his policies
or raise campaign funds. That may be a less serious problem for Obama, who
hauled in $86 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic Party in
the three months ending June 30. That was more than all his GOP rivals
combined.
Those rivals, meanwhile, are steadily ramping up
their campaigns and attacks on Obama, while feeling little compulsion to jump
into the contentious and divisive debt debate consuming the capital.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
