GOP disarray over debt ceiling

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/08/gop-disarray-over-debt-ceiling/


GOP disarray over debt ceiling

Posted by Greg Sargent on January 8, 2013 at 3:45 pm


Here’s another sign that the debt ceiling doesn’t give the GOP the leverage it claims: You’re starting to see mixed messaging among Republicans about the way forward in the debt limit battle.

The latest: On MSNBC today, GOP Rep. Tom Cole — last seen breaking with the GOP leadership’s strategy on the fiscal cliff — dismissed the viability of one of John Boehner’s latest suggestions, i.e., the idea that Republicans might force monthly debt ceiling increases. Boehner had suggested the idea in an interview with Stephen Moore.

On MSNBC, Cole was asked whether he thought Boehner could still make good on the “Boehner rule,” which dictates that Republicans will insist on a dollar of spending cuts for every dollar the debt ceiling is raised. Cole said Boehner would make good on it. But then he was asked explicitly if he supported the idea of monthly increases. Cole replied:

“No, I actually think that’s a very short sighted way to do it. I would hope the president presents some sort of solution that’s much longer term than that.”

snip//

All of which points to what may be the most important fact about the whole debt ceiling fight: GOP leaders want to be granted the presumption of leverage based on the threat of default, yet they are not prepared to deliver on that threat. Even worse, they need to somehow signal publicly that they are not really serious about default as an option — otherwise the business community will come down on them hard — while simultaneously maintaining the public posture that the debt ceiling hike really is something Dems will need to pay for with concessions of their own.

The GOP’s debt ceiling threat is an empty gimmick — far more of a gimmick than the “platinum coin” solution to it is.

[Vietnameravet]

1. I am convinced that many Repbs would not hesitate to bring about

a national economic crisis if they thought they could blame it on Obama.
Its always Get Obama first and worry about the damage to the nation later..

[Amonester]

9. Yes, but they seem to always forget President Obama will not seek re-election again.

And threatening all 401Ks' values every month isn't going to make them popular much after a few months of monthly depressions....

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Here's my "Gimmick"

Cut the DOD budget. Not acceptable to the GOP? Then quit trying to blackmail America.

[Scuba]

4. +1,000

[underpants]

11. I agree (and Hagel has proposed that) but the GOP is still the Party of the South

and a substantial part of the South's economy is Uncle Sucker (US) money. As much as they claim to hate "big government" they have to protect the cash cow.

AND ex-Republican reps cash in as DoD contractor lobbyists.

Oh and let's not forget that we can't diminish our military posts and bases in the South - those Spaniards are just LURKING waiting to attack again

[Cha]

3. The gop has the US corporatemedia propping up their

bullshit.. that's all they have.

Thanks babylonsistah

[DallasNE]

5. Boehner Is Like The 3-Year Old At The Check-Out

That is throwing a fit to get some candy. Give in to the kid and the kid learns that throwing a fit works and does it again the next time. He even wants to do it every month.

But on the serious side, even after the fiscal cliff deal revenue will still be low as a percent of GDP when looking at the history of revenue relative to GDP. What this means is that there is still room on the revenue side so a balanced approach should be considered seriously. After all, austerity as Boehner wants has some serious drawbacks as evidenced by what is currently happening in Euorpe where most of the continent is currently in recession and the others have growth that is even slower than what we have. Besides, Boehner's approach doesn't examine the drivers that took us from $250 billion surpluses to $1.25 trillion deficits so there is little chance that his medicine would even have the desired result and doesn't consider the impact on jobs. Killing the patient doesn't save the patient. It only kills it.

[KharmaTrain]

6. The Teabaggers Want To Shut Things Down...

Few, if any of these asshats were around in the 90s when Gingrich tried a similar stunt to shut the government down and it resulted in Bill Clinton being re-elected. Their game is anarchy...to make the federal government as dysfunctional as possible in hopes of paralyzing this President politically and do the dirty work of those who want to privatize everything the government now does. They aren't really serious about governing and thus aren't really serious about fixing the country's problems...only serving their big money masters.

[tclambert]

7. Platinum coin! I'm all for the platinum coin.

A trillion dollar platinum coin is ridiculous. But it shows how ridiculous this whole "debt crisis" is. It's like Republicans are threatening to lock themselves in a vault with a bomb. And if they don't get what they want, they'll blow themselves up . . . and nobody else.

[malaise]

8. Boehner is just taking orders from Grover

It was Norquist who suggested the monthly debt ceiling.

Most Americans want to avoid another debt ceiling fight like the 2011 debacle, which led to an unprecedented downgrade of US credit, an all-time low approval rating for Congress, and cost taxpayers $18.9 billion. But Boehner is taking his cues from anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who floated the idea of a monthly debt ceiling increase as a way to extort more spending cuts from Democrats. Norquist’s strict pledge to never raise taxes, which most Republicans have signed, was the main cause of the crisis in 2011. Other Republicans seem eager to replicate the experience, including newcomer Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who encouraged his colleagues to aim for another government shutdown.

If Boehner takes Norquist’s advice and institutes a regular debt ceiling battle, he may fulfill his own warning in 2011, when he predicted a global “financial disaster” if the US did not raise the debt ceiling..

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/01/07/1408401/boehner-wants-to-fight-about-the-debt-ceiling-every-month/?mobile=nc

[underpants]

10. Boehner rule