In a sign of further erosion of the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, Michael McAuliff, of the Huffington Post, reports, Mitch McConnell Offers New Strategy In Debt Debate: Blame President Obama. "Bipartisan cooperation?" Not! This is all out ideological warfare folks, and it's best we face up to it. As an advocate of non-violent change, I am not enthusiastic about metaphors of war, perhaps, it is more delicate to call this class struggle, instead of class warfare. But, it may sound effete.
UPDATE: I just added a section of Megen McArdle predicting that if we go into default, the Republicans will be blamed.
Please read this whole article for other quotes, showing the GOP's political opportunism here. Have they no shame? Fair use guidelines, limit me to to quote but a fraction of this excellent report. But, it will get your blood boiling, so fasten your seatbelts.
In a bad sign for the stalled debt talks, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ratcheted up the rhetoric in the ongoing blame game Thursday, saying it would be all President Obama's fault if the nation suffers a catastrophic default on its financial obligations.
McConnell had already proposed shifting all the responsibility to the White House by offering a plan that would that would let the administration make cuts and hike the debt ceiling in increments, with Congress having the right to say no only if super majorities object.
McConnell got hammered by Tea Party activists for trying to "abdicate" his responsibility, but he made plain in a radio interview Wednesday that the object was to duck political blame for the budget crisis -- which he suspected would land on his side.
He made the case again on the Senate floor Thursday morning, arguing the crisis was not sparked by the GOP's unprecedented decision to link future spending cuts to paying past debts -- which Obama embraced -- but by the President's unwillingness to accept the Republican demands.
“I was truly hopeful that the President could be persuaded to view the upcoming debt limit vote as an opportunity to cut Washington spending and the debt that has ballooned since he took office, and preserve entitlements," McConnell said. "But, in the end, he just wasn’t interested in something that would pass."
“He gave us three bad choices: higher taxes, smoke and mirrors, or default," McConnell argued. "And we refuse to accept any of them."
He then explicitly blamed the president.
“The speaker has told the White House he sees no need to go to Camp David this weekend,” said Steel.
Gak!
So Mitch McConnell, is "shocked, truly shocked, to discover partisan politics entering to his pure and noble efforts to solve this debt-ceiling crisis?"
We going to cooperate with these gophers?
My original thoughts were that we need to take this to the American people and point out the real ways to balance this budget. Cut $200 billion a year from the military spending and return taxation to Clinton era levels. We could leave in cuts for those earning less than $250,000. And, close loopholes, and subsidies for the nuclear industry ($36 billion), corporations etc.
I don't know what strings are attached to the GOP plan to extend the debt-ceiling in stages. If it is a pure, "clean," deal maybe we should consider it. We shouldn't pay $1.7 trillion in cuts to get a six month extension. But, if this is the GOP backing down, maybe we should consider it?
We need to make all the details of the current positions public so we know what to advocate for.
Whatever...
1:01 PM PT: The Atlantic Home
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Debt Ceiling: What's the End Game For Republicans?
Megan McArdle, Debt Ceiling: What's the End Game For Republicans?
Jonathan Podhoretz reads a Quinnipiac poll showing that by a margin of 48-34, the public is going to blame Republicans and not Obama if we don't raise the debt ceiling, and joins the ranks of the Washington sellouts:
At some point, those who believe it will be acceptable to go to August 3 without an increase in the debt limit, as well as those who believe the politics favor the Republicans, are going to have to reckon with the fact that there are no data points supporting their beliefs. The way things are going, if August 2 comes and goes without an agreement, there will be a worldwide panic that would have catastrophic immediate consequences in the equity markets. And when Obama says, "I warned and warned and warned and they didn't listen," any attempt to offer a counterargument is going to sound very hollow.
I know I'm beating a dead horse at this point, but I continue to be mystified by what the base, the activists, and the politicians who are pushing the "no new revenue" stance hope to accomplish.
Let's start by pointing out the obvious: the Democrats do not show any signs of caving. They have offered what seem to be very attractive deals, and been turned down. Think you're going to get a more attractive deal? Every time another poll like this comes out, your bargaining position gets worse. Moreover, in Washington, deals take time. Even if Obama and the Democrats caved right now and gave the GOP massive entitlement cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, the government would be hard-pressed to hammer out the details, draft them into legislative language, get the CBO to score the cuts so you know that they're real, and then whip the votes to get the damn thing passed. Every day you wait makes it less, not more, likely that you can get any deal at all.
1:25 PM PT: Amid growing anger, debt limit debate drags on
By Brian Montopoli
Administration officials have suggested a deal must be in place by roughly July 22 in order to get a deal through Congress in time. On Wednesday, ratings agency Moody's put the United States' Aaa bond rating under review for possible downgrade as the deadline approaches; Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said bluntly, "we're running out of time." (You can read a primer on the debt limit fight here.)
After House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pressed the president to consider a short-term debt limit extension - something the president has ruled out - Mr. Obama left the meeting, saying "enough is enough."
Sources say Mr. Obama also told Cantor not to try to "call my bluff," while a GOP aide said House Speaker John Boehner pointedly said in response to an effort to use budgetary gimmicks to reach a deal, "We're not doing that anymore."
Democrats spent the day casting Cantor as a petulant crybaby, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calling him "childish" and saying Cantor "has shown he shouldn't even be at the table." Sen. Charles Schumer, meanwhile, disputed Cantor's claim that there is no deficit reduction deal that can pass the House and suggested that Cantor is "the only real person who has not made any concessions."
"He is basically standing in the way, and it's a shame," Schumer said. ...
Meanwhile, cracks in the Republican coalition continued to show as a result of the deal, with Wall Street splitting with the Tea Party in calling for a deal to get done.