NY Mag - GOP Rather Kill Hostage Than Agree To Slightly Higher Revenue

[TomCADem]

I think one thing that the corporate media ignores is that the GOP does not really care about the deficit. If it did, then Democrats and Republicans could fairly easily reach a compromise to reduce the deficit with the GOP agreeing to some fairly modest increases in revenues. However, the GOP is hell bent on using the deficit and the debt limit to try to extort trillions in cuts to Medicare and Social Security without any additional revenues.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/01/obama-dares-gop-to-kill-the-hostage.html?mid=google&google_editors_picks=true

The contention of the rightists is that, dangerous though it may be to fail to lift the debt ceiling, it would be more dangerous not to let them impose massive cuts to domestic spending:

To the vast majority of House Republicans, it is far riskier long term to pile up new debt than it is to test the market and economic reaction of default or closing down the government. …

That will be a tough sell, says Chris Chocola, president of the conservative Club for Growth. “What’s more irresponsible: continuing on this path to fiscal ruin, or changing the path?” he said. “There is a high level of frustration, and a willingness to do something dramatic. They think this is the only way to get Obama’s attention.”

So that’s the plan — “do something dramatic” to “get Obama’s attention.” House Republicans have officially adopted the strategic posture of public shooters and unbalanced breakup notes.

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It’s also noteworthy, though not noteworthy enough to be noted by Allen and VandeHei, that Republicans consider the budget deficit so massive and urgent as to be worth provoking economic disaster, but not urgent enough to consider accepting higher revenue as part of a compromise. The fiscal status quo is worse than a potential global meltdown, but even slightly higher revenue is worse than both.

[samsingh]

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