Bohner's Corporate Masters are telling him not to screw with the debt ceiling raise

[n2doc]

Playing Chicken With the Debt Ceiling
— By Kevin Drum| Wed Apr. 13, 2011 7:58 AM PDT

Matt Yglesias notes that John Boehner has been asking his Wall Street pals about whether they think it's OK for him to play a high-stakes game of chicken with the debt ceiling, and the loud-and-clear answer has been "no no no no no":


Then the question becomes “do a majority of members of congress favor raising the debt ceiling?” And the fact of the matter is that the answer is yes. Boehner isn’t even asking Wall Street whether or not raising the ceiling is a good idea. He takes it for granted that it’s a good idea. He’s just asking them how much screwing around he can get away with. And they’re telling him that they don’t like screwing around. Of course these are rich people, so they’ll tolerate some screwing around if it’s done in pursuit of lower taxes on rich people. But at the end of the day if the White House simply refuses to get sucked into a negotiation, the debt ceiling will be raised.



I think the political dynamics are a little more complicated than this because (a) the Wall Street guys are almost certainly overstating the market's reaction to a small amount of screwing around (they usually do, after all), and (b) Boehner has lots of public support for playing chicken. Still, it's basically right because the debt ceiling is a different animal than a government shutdown. Government shutdowns, after all, are fundamentally fights over the federal budget: if you can't agree on a budget, the government shuts down. So blame is hard to assess because both sides have budget proposals and neither proposal is obviously the one causing the shutdown. It's just a straight-up political fight, with neither side really sure who's going to win the PR battle.

The debt ceiling fight is different: it's not obviously tied to anything in particular, which means the side that starts festooning it with extraneous pet issues is pretty obviously the side that's preventing a debt ceiling increase. So if Boehner and the tea partiers look genuinely willing to let the United States default on its debt unless they get a bunch of goodies in return, there's not much question who gets the blame. Republicans do.

more
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/04/playing-chicken-debt-ceiling

[PA Democrat]

1. It's no wonder the normally impeccably groomed Boehner has looked all sweaty

lately. He looks like someone who is not enjoying his job these days. I'll bet he dreams of the days when his biggest worry was getting all of those tobacco checks into the hands of his fellow Republicans before the vote took place on tobacco subsidies.

[maxrandb]

2. This is precisely why Progressives need to "call their bluff" and demand concessions

Look, nobody wants to see the country default on its debts by failing to raise the debt ceiling, but isn't it time to SHIFT THE DEBATE AWAY FROM SPENDING CUTS TO DISCRETIONARY SPENDING?. Discretionary spending, BTW, that helps and benefits Middle Class and Working Poor Americans!!

If the Progressives were smart, they would tie any increase in the debt ceiling to a repeal of the Bush Tax Cuts for the top 5% of wealthy Americans!

It's a "win-win" bargaining position. Not only do you shift the debate away from "what programs do we cut", to "it's time we paid our debt by increasing revenue"...BUT...it also puts the Repubs in a box by making them "threaten financial ruin for the country to preserve tax breaks that are bankrupting the country".

How about we put these ass-pickles on the defensive for once?

It's a perfect argument to have: "We have to increase the debt ceiling, but in order to do that, we are going to require more from the folks that have seen their percentage of wealth "quadrupple" over the past 30 years at the expense of everyone else".

Just think of the prospect of the Koch brothers begging Boehner for a 3-5% raise in their tax-rate to ensure their protfolio doesn't tank!

Oh, and another benefit is that 81% OF AMERICANS FAVOR ENDING THE BUSH TAX-CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY OVER ANY CUTS IN SPENDING.

Sure, you would have a few Tea-bag idiots that would cheer not raising the debt limit, but this approach might be what it takes to FORCE THE MODERATE/SANE REPUBLICANS OUT OF THE CLOSET.