Clean debt cieling raises are the precedent since 1917. That is a fact.
The 18 debt cieling raises under President Reagan were all clean. That is a fact.
It is the Tea Party fuckers in the House who have demanded a pound of flesh for the debt cieling to be raised. That is a fact. If they weren't nuts, they would have just passed a clean raise last month, like every other fucking House before them.
President Obama can't, however, demand a clean raise. It is not leadership for him to demand a clean raise. "But every other President got clean raises" is whiny. So he has to use the opportunity to show that the House is run by a bunch of clowns who don't understand Government.
He has been forced to demand the Grand Bargain to win the middle. The Grand Bargain will not happen, there is not enough time to write the legislation and whip the necessary votes. There isn't even enough time for CBO to score some Grand Bargain.
The President knows that he has the public on his side by demanding revenue in exchange for cuts. He also knows that Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce will be ratcheting up the heat on the House GOP exponentially, and that the debt cieling will be raised.
The President is playing us, the Left, against the House Tea Party, in a stalling tactic to get a clean debt cieling raise.
At the end of the day, he can say, "I wanted to really fix our deficits, but partisan politics got in the way." And it's a cudgel he can use repeatedly against Republicans until 2012. Anytime they whine about spending, he can say, "Look, you had a chance to cut spending and you blew it."
We need to keep being pissed off anytime Soc. Sec. or Medicare or any other cut for that matter gets mentioned. That's our job in this fight and every other fight.
But at the end of this, there will be a clean raise, one way or another. And the President knows this. He is stalling to the point where time will have run out for Congress to craft and pass any legislation, and they have to simply do what they've had to do countless times in the past.