Yay!
With Congress momentarily freed from the Syrian crisis, lawmakers plunged back into their bitter fiscal standoff on Thursday as Speaker John A. Boehner appealed to the Obama administration and Democratic leaders to help him resolve divisions in the Republican ranks that could lead to a government shutdown by month’s end.
In meetings with Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders on Thursday after a session with Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew on Wednesday, Mr. Boehner sought a resumption of negotiations that could keep the government running and yield a deficit-reduction deal that would persuade recalcitrant conservatives to raise the government’s borrowing limit.
Well, I guess that's great news, right? Everybody loves negotiations and diplomacy, and now with this move John Boehner is showing that the Republican tea party fever has finally broken and they are willing at long last to have a reasonable discussion.
It's almost like he's the Vladimir Putin of the Republican Party, willing to sit at the table for as long as it takes to solve the problem. And what solution is it that Boehner is seeking?
“It’s time for the president’s party to show the courage to work with us to solve this problem,” said Mr. Boehner, who argued that budget deals have been part of past agreements to raise the debt limit.
Ah. Boehner wants Democrats to agree to cut entitlements and dump Obamacare so that he can pass something without losing Republican votes. Or, to put it another way, Boehner is demanding the same thing that he's wanted all along. It's just this time he wants Democrats to give him what he wants. And why should they deliver for him? Because he said so, apparently.
Congress must stop playing politics with the debt ceiling. Please sign our petition rejecting Republican economic terrorism. Our country has no time for such petty politics.