Reviews of McConnell's proposal are trickling in, beyond the keyboard commandos at Red State who are literally frothing over the tubes in anger over it.
Heritage isn't much more enamored.
“There is no question that the Obama administration is fundamentally unserious about the types of reforms our country needs, but to date Republicans in Congress have been expressing their intent to use the debt ceiling as a means to secure systemic reforms that could save our country from fiscal collapse. The plan that we are reading reports about today is a serious walk back from that position and would seemingly trade the leverage needed to achieve reforms in return for political gains.
“If Republicans in Congress believe they cannot strike a real deal with President Obama, they should begin making serious plans to live under the confines of a de facto balanced budget come August 2.”
Candidate Newt Gingrich must figure he can pick up some tea party support out of it. Or maybe he's going for the Eric Erickson vote.
Grover Norquist is all over it, because of course it doesn't touch taxes.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, says he supports Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s “contingency plan” designed to force President Obama to assume nearly all of the responsibility for raising the debt ceiling.
“Obama is playing politics,” Norquist tells National Review Online in an interview. “Republicans need to force him to do what the established press is not doing. He says he’s got a serious proposal. Could we see it written down please?”
But from the other side of the Hill, where it matters more, the House, who knows?
Huge chutzpah points to House Speaker John Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel, who sends along a statement of support in response to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's byzantine plan to avoid a debt default.
"The Speaker shares the Leader's frustration," Steel says. "Republicans are unified in our commitment to ensuring that the debt limit is not used as leverage to saddle small businesses with increased taxes that destroy jobs."
That seems more like a punt than a statement of support. Boehner has to have his finger in the wind, trying to figure out exactly where his caucus—pulled from one side by their rulers on Wall Street and the other by their insane activist base—is going to land.
2:36 PM PT: And the tea party speaks.
The influential conservative Tea Party organization FreedomWorks is pushing back on a plan by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to hand much of the responsibility for raising the debt ceiling to President Obama.
"Sen. McConnell thinks cutting spending is too hard. Help him find his spine.
Call him at 202-224-2541," the group tweeted.
Have fun with this one, Boehner.