The Leader's Ledger

State Of Play: House Prevents Default, Passes The Budget Control Act Of 2011

Leader Cantor: This Bill Averts Default, Points Us In The Right Direction and Does Not Include Tax Hikes. “This bill, although it was not perfect at all and wouldn’t have been the bill I think many of us wanted, it is a bill that does avert having to go past today which the Secretary of Treasury said would bring us closer to or at default. It does put a down payment down and points us in the right direction, setting up a structure that will impose some type of forced discipline to finally get Washington to stop spending money it doesn’t have. … It is consistent with what we have said all along, to make sure that if we are going to raise the credit limit of the country you have to find the cuts that are equal to or exceed that amount. Hopefully, we will get something done and see a committee that produces the right formula. What I was most concerned about throughout the whole process was making sure we don’t have any job-killing tax increases right now when we have unemployment at 9.2 percent and in most parts of the country it’s unofficially worse than that.” WRVA Richmond’s Morning News

• Leader Cantor Praises Speaker Boehner’s Leadership For Insisting On Spending Cuts & Ensuring Taxes Were Not Raised: During a closed-door meeting on the deal Monday morning, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) told Boehner: "Due to your commitment and clarity in setting the goals clearly ... for how we were going to move forward with this debate, for the first time in history, we were going to insist on spending cuts, insist once and for all that Washington doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. And that we were not going to raise taxes," a participant in the meeting said. Roll Call

How President Obama’s “Bluff” Played Out – A Victory For Advocates Of Smaller Government. Remember a few weeks ago when President Obama reportedly said to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor: "Eric, don't call my bluff"? Lots of commentators said that this was a "tell"--that by referring to "my bluff," Obama was admitting he was bluffing. Actually, his play was even worse than that. A bluff is a pretense. The bluffer knows he has a weak hand but bets as if he has a strong one in order to induce his opponents to fold. Obama had a weak hand but thought he had a strong one. His next words to Cantor, according to Politico, were a vow to "take his case 'to the American people.' " He actually believed--for all we know, he still believes--all that World's Greatest Orator nonsense. ... Thus he ended up maximizing his losses. The Wall Street Journal

• Obama had looked at his cards and seen that he was holding a 2, a 3, a 4 and a 5. He was sure he had an ace to complete the straight, but in reality he was looking in the mirror. From the standpoint of a small-government conservative, the agreement is far from perfect, but it's probably the best possible outcome as long as a left-wing Democrat is in the White House and his party has a Senate majority. One measure of that is the rage it has provoked on the liberal left. The Wall Street Journal

House Dems Lash Out At President Obama, See Deal As GOP Win. House Democrats on Monday expressed outrage at the White House for how it handled the debt-ceiling negotiations, claiming the administration caved to the GOP and left them in the dark. The irate lawmakers took exception to the lack of balance between cuts and revenues; they railed against the White House for excluding them from the process; and they accused President Obama of bowing to the demands of Republicans without putting up much of a fight. “Our negotiators weren’t tough enough,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said Monday. “They didn’t do the work.” ... When the deal was reached Sunday, Engel continued, the White House “didn’t bother” to contact House Democrats. “We all heard that there was this deal through the media,” he said. ... “But if you had told me that this would be [the] package a month ago,” he added, “I would have asked you what you had been smoking.” ... Asked what she thinks of the bill, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) was terse. “I don’t think,” she said. “I cry.” The Hill

The Road Ahead: House Set Sights On Removing Barriers, Instilling Confidence and Creating An Environment For Job Creation

Leader Cantor: We Will Continue To Be Focused Like A Laser On Job Growth: “One of the things we will focus on like a laser when Congress goes back to Washington in September is that point. We have to stop Washington from getting in the way of growth in this country. The President and his policies have proved detrimental to small businesses, to the middle class in this country, and to the entrepreneurs. If you think about what has built this country, it is the small business people, it is the manufacturers, it is the people who open stores in all the shopping centers around our area, it is the people who innovate and come up with new technology that helps increase productivity and create jobs. Those are the kind of people who don’t have a lot of confidence right now because frankly they don’t know where Washington is going next.” WRVA Richmond’s Morning News

The Obama Economy: Economic Indicators Point To More Dismal Growth Numbers

Manufacturing Growth Hits Lowest Level In Two Years, First Sign That Dismal Growth May Continue Into The 3rd Quarter. Manufacturers had their weakest growth in two years in July, a sign that the economy could weaken this summer. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said Monday that its index of manufacturing activity fell to 50.9 percent in July from 55.3 percent in June. The reading was the lowest since July 2009 -- one month after the recession officially ended. ... The disappointing report on manufacturing is the first major reading on how the economy performed in July. It suggests the dismal economic growth in the first half of the year could extend into the July-September quarter. "The ISM manufacturing report for July is a shocker and strongly suggests that the disappointing performance of the economy in the first half of the year was not just temporary," said Paul Dales, a senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics. The Associated Press

Unexpected Drop In Consumer Spending Suggests Dismal Economic Growth In The Future. Consumer spending unexpectedly fell in June to post the first decline in nearly two years as incomes barely rose, a government report showed, suggesting economic growth could remain subdued in the third quarter. Reuters

Keeping Tabs: The Fissure Between The Administration and Unions Continues To Widen

Frustration Grows Between Labor Groups and The “It Could Have Been Worse” Administration. The debt ceiling bill set to be voted upon Monday evening has left labor advocates in yet another precarious -- and deeply frustrated -- position. A president who began his term with the promise to not only stem the tide of job loss but also reconfigure the wealth disparity in the country has been bitten by the austerity bug. Moreover, there seem to be fewer and fewer legislative or political outlets for unions to explore. ... Labor advocates, while consulted, didn't have a seat at the table during the debt ceiling debate, sometimes learning information only through press reports or secondhand accounts. But when the deal was struck -- decidedly against their favor -- they were asked to stay silent and look on the bright side. ... "The slogan of this administration is 'it could have been worse.' Seriously, that is what they stand for," said one incredulous labor official. The Huffington Post

Off The Beaten Path

ICYMI – A Great Read In The New Yorker: Getting Bin Laden

Anyone Else See A Problem Here? Rust Will Restrict Canadian Submarine’s Diving Range – The Toronto Star

PSA: How To Avoid Being Eaten By Lions – EEN