UPDATE: As predicted, the GOP’s funders are pressuring them to get the ceiling lifted.
Following up from my post of yesterday, about Republicans negotiating as if they want the debt ceiling negotiations to fail, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered a plan that is being taken as a concession, or a caving in, or The Big Blink, take your pick, but don’t be too long about it because that’s wrong: it’s a trap.
It sounds like quite the concession to say Obama can raise the debt ceiling as he pleases, and Congress can only pass a resolution disapproving, which means nothing if the president vetoes it and Congress can’t override. Notice the extra condition though: the president has to cut spending by the same amount he raises the debt ceiling. The difference could not be made up by tax increases and as we’ve seen lately, Republicans regard closing corporate special interest subsidies and loopholes as tax increases.
That means the whole amount would have to be budget cuts, as massive as necessary to equal the amount of the ceiling increase. Those are some draconian cuts and what’s more, here’s part of the trap, Obama would own them. He couldn’t blame Congress, because it won’t be able to oppose him except by overriding his veto of their resolution of disapproval, and overrides of presidential vetoes are quite rare. So Obama gets all the political blowback for painful cuts, while Republicans get their radically reduced government.
But that’s not all.
Remember that at some point, maybe already January 2013, there will be a Republican president who will have the same authority. Contrary to their current resistance to raising the debt ceiling even in the face of a causing the most easily avoided crisis in history, there will be a huge incentive for these future Republican presidents to raise the debt ceiling. By raising it, they will have the power to make budget cuts without needing congressional approval, except for the aforementioned unlikely veto override.
Think about that, especially if you’re a Democrat in elected office in DC: the Republican president decides to raise the debt ceiling by any massive amount, and he thereby can’t be stopped from making equally massive cuts. The government will be drowning in that bathtub in short order.
If that’s a surrender, then flies get eaten by venus fly surrenders. Fur trappers have one size leg hold surrender for beavers, another surrender for muskrats, and Republicans have a nice big leg hold surrender to catch unwary donkeys.
Remember that at some point, maybe already January 2013, there will be a Republican president who will have the same authority. Contrary to their current resistance to raising the debt ceiling even in the face of a causing the most easily avoided crisis in history, there will be a huge incentive for these future Republican presidents to raise the debt ceiling. By raising it, they will have the power to make budget cuts without needing congressional approval, except for the aforementioned unlikely veto override.
Think about that, especially if you’re a Democrat in elected office in DC: the Republican president decides to raise the debt ceiling by any massive amount, and he thereby can’t be stopped from making equally massive cuts. The government will be drowning in that bathtub in short order.
If that’s a surrender, then flies get eaten by venus fly surrenders. Fur trappers have one size leg hold surrender for beavers, another surrender for muskrats, and Republicans have a nice big leg hold surrender to catch unwary donkeys.
UPDATE:
Forgive some immodest horn blowing, but I did predict this in arguing against giving the Republicans anything to raise the debt ceiling. The GOP is being pressured by its funders, including the US Chamber of Commerce. Boehner was so out of sorts, his response was a defense of replacing Medicare with a voucher that would still have the “Medicare” label slapped on it:
“The business community in large numbers is saying to our leaders in Washington, ‘Do your job,'” said Business Roundtable President John Engler, a former Republican governor of Michigan. “Failure to raise the debt ceiling would strike an immediate and serious blow to any economic recovery, and failure to make significant progress on long-term debt reduction will continue the uncertainty which is hampering our investment climate.”
Republican lawmakers had a muted response to the business groups’ warnings. A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said Obama was to blame for the standoff and pointed to a House Republican proposal to slash tax rates and transform Medicare into a voucher program.
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