Tim Pawlenty, former Republican presidential candidate, former co-chair of Romney's campaign, thinks Congressional Republicans should stop trying to hold the economy hostage:
The powerful Financial Services Roundtable — which is headed by former GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty and represents nearly 100 of the largest financial service firms in the country — is set to increase pressure on Congress to raise the debt limit, warning that failure to do so will make the markets go “haywire.”
“We are in favor of raising it, and we will be encouraging policy makers to increase it,” Scott Talbott, the senior vice president for public policy for the Financial Services Roundtable, told me today. He added that the group was gearing up to communicate the demand for action to Congress, an effort that could include sending letters to every member. “We will communicate with the entire Congress,” he said.
Talbott said the markets would go nuts if the debt ceiling were not raised. Interestingly, he noted that the markets had remained relatively flat heading into the fiscal cliff deadline, and said he expected the same as the debt ceiling deadline looms, because the markets now expect Congress to get these deals done at the drop dead moment.
washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line
Newt Gingrich and the WSJ editorial board have also warned their fellow republicans that their chosen strategy is horrendous.
In related news, also written up by Greg Sargent:
Karl Rove accidentally unmasks the GOP’s debt ceiling ruse
Rove acknowledges flat out that Boehner, McConnell, and other Republican leaders do recognize that they will have to raise the debt ceiling. They just, you know, want to raise it while reaching a broader deal to cut spending. The game here is absurdly transparent: You mustn’t claim Republicans are crazy enough to destroy the economy to get their way, because they don’t want to do that at all — but you still must play along with the idea that the need to raise the debt ceiling (which they acknowledge must happen) still somehow gives them leverage to get the cuts they want.
Please click over to read the original for the details, and to give Sargent the kudos he deserves:
karl-rove-accidentally-unmasks-the-gops-debt-ceiling-ruse/
I think the game is just about up.