Obama is going to demonstrate on just how unserious the republican party is by governing by.....endorsing a deficit commission.
Note this is the same Gregg and Conrad deficit via statute. But before you throw tomatoes, hear me out.
Obama throws the gauntlet at Republicans
It seems quite apparent that this statute will fail to be attached to the debt commission. The only thing that Obama did with his endorsement of such a panel is to increase his fiscal bonafides. Let me repeat that. It's going to fail. It's going to make the executive order much easier to go through and it will undoubtedly be weaker than a Commission.
But here's why it's going to fail. It's going to fail because so many republicans can't cross the club for growth otherwise they're going to get primaried.
It’s been even more striking to see the erosion of support from Republicans under pressure from anti-tax activists and conservative editorialists. Even co-sponsors of the bill to create the commission have dropped off, and this gives Obama an opening to argue that Republicans are running away from the tough choices needed to govern.
After speaking warmly of the commission before Christmas, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) has backed away, and he and Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) are expected to offer their members a “cover” commission alterative that would focus only on spending cuts to reduce the deficit, not taxes.
In other words, Republicans have to be afraid of getting purified. This makes them them completely unserious to govern. They cannot handle any of the serious problems of the day without a risk of getting scorned by the party et al.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Cal.) appears to have given her tacit go-ahead to the White House endorsement Saturday, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D, Md.) who has worked most closely with the administration on the issue, did so publicly Saturday night.
"This announcement should eliminate any questions about the President's commitment to creating an effective fiscal commission to deal with our fiscal challenges,” Hoyer said. “It is now up to Republicans to follow his lead by supporting the Conrad-Gregg proposal and, if it fails, working with the President to make a commission created by executive order a success.”
“"As we work to bring down the deficits created by their reckless policies during eight years in office, I hope Republicans see this as an opportunity to work together to tackle our nation's fiscal challenges."
To show how unlikely this is going to pass the Senate, Pelosi has okay'd Obama's endorsement. But this gives almost perfect proof that the Republicans cannot take care of the country and shouldn't be allowed to govern until they can. We can take the fiscally responsible label away from them. Once and for all. Of course, they never really had that, but once that stigma that the public associates with them vanishes, there's nothing left.