And gets no takers on the bet? Are you "all in"? Do you believe that the Dems and Obama will fight this time? This time, it's different. Yes, it's different this time. I want to believe in hope and change. It will be different. He'll fight. Won't he? It's different this time, or is it?
Eric Cantor: Debt Ceiling Vote Will Be 'Leverage Moment' For GOP Spending-Cut Demands
Cantor said on "Fox News Sunday" that the House GOP was emboldened by the funding deal announced on Friday, in which the Obama White House and Senate Democrats agreed to roughly $38 billion in spending cuts. Lengthy negotiations over that deal nearly left the federal government unfunded and forced to shut down, but the stakes may be even higher for the debt ceiling, which must be raised to prevent the United States from defaulting on its loans.
In exchange for raising the debt limit -- long a routine move allowing the Treasury Department to borrow more money -- House Republicans will demand further concessions to shrink the government, Cantor said.
"There comes at times leverage moments, a time when the president will capitulate to what the American people want right now," he said. "
Meanwhile, the Great Neutral considers pre-compromise on social security:
Several presidential advisers interviewed in recent weeks said Mr. Obama has been torn between wanting to propose major budget changes to entice Republicans to the bargaining table, including on Social Security, and believing they would never agree to raise revenues on upper-income Americans as part of a deal
NY Times: Obama to Call for Broad Plan to Reduce Debt
Perhaps we should accept the Ryan Plan now, because the Republican bullies will only make the Democrats and the Great Mediator accept something worse because they delayed. When the bully demands 25 cents and you delay, it goes up to 50 cents. The Bully already knows you won't fight anyway.
It will be different this time. It will. Really. I know it. It has to be. That's what I have been saying for two years. Lost hope.
All in?
Update I: Just the beginning:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
That is why Republicans see the vote as their best chance this year to force President Barack Obama to accept dramatic reductions in the federal budget, this time perhaps measured in trillions, rather than billions.
“I can tell you this: There will not be an increase in the debt limit without something really, really big attached to it,” House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said at an April 9 fundraiser in Connecticut.
When you give in to extortionists, they just increase their demands.
We beg you Mr. President, fight back for Americans.