Will
this be an opportunity for a rare display of bipartisan comity?
A group of Senate Democrats is slated Tuesday to introduce a plan allowing the president to raise the debt ceiling without the approval of Congress — a tactic dubbed the "McConnell Rule."
The plan hinges on a solution devised by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) during the 2011 debt-ceiling standoff that saddled President Obama with ultimate responsibility for raising the limit. It was used again in the deal to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government earlier this month.
While Congress would be able to halt the borrowing increase by a vote of disapproval, it would be subject to a presidential veto and have little chance of gaining the necessary supermajorities to override it.
Or will it be yet another opportunity for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to pander to tea partiers as he fights to win renomination in the Kentucky GOP Senate primary?
Spoiler alert: you already knew the answer.
The so-called ‘Schumer-Obama Plan’ is a plan to permanently hand the President a credit card without spending limits, and without lifting a finger to address the national debt.
It’s outrageous.
It was good enough for Mitch McConnell the first time around when it was used to raise the debt limit in 2011. It was good enough for McConnell the second time around when it was used to raise the debt limit in 2013. And it will certainly be good enough for McConnell in mid-2014, the next time the debt limit needs to get raised. But he won't agree to it now, because tea partiers wouldn't like it, because they want to imagine in their head that the debt limit is still a hostage crisis waiting to happen. It's not, but Mitch McConnell is too chicken to tell them the truth.
