Aides say GOP will cast debt limit vote to prove it's willing to shoot the hostage

House GOP ransom note discovered!
 

WSJ:

WASHINGTON—Republican leaders will bring a "clean" bill that would raise the U.S. debt limit by $2 trillion to the House floor for a vote next week, aides said Tuesday, with an expectation that the measure will fail.

The move was first floated by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) last month as a way to show congressional Democrats and the Obama administration that increasing the debt limit wouldn't be possible without attaching spending controls to the measure. A clean bill wouldn't have spending cuts or caps attached.

I'm assuming Republicans wouldn't schedule this vote unless they were sure that virtually everyone in their caucus will vote against raising the limit. Given that the debt limit vote is a political turd sandwich, there's no way that Democrats should vote for raising it in that scenario. And they shouldn't validate the GOP gamesmanship by voting no. Instead, they should vote present. Obviously, if enough Republicans vote yes, Democrats should join them and get this thing over with, but failing that, a vote of "present" is as far as they should go.

The bottom-line is that raising the debt limit is the responsibility of congressional Republicans. They've already voted for the budget policies that require an extension of the debt limit, so this is a problem that they own and that they have to fix. If they won't do it, there's nothing Democrats can do except sit back and wait for Republicans to get a clue. Hopefully that happens sooner than later. But until it happens, there's simply no way for Democrats to bail them out.