Visual Source: Newseum
LA Times:
Opposition to a deal with Obama creates problems for GOP...
Republican resistance to compromise has turned a significant bloc of voters against them, according to several new polls, and has frustrated members of their own leadership as well as establishment GOP figures.
The fear among leading Republicans is that the party may lose an opportunity to lock in budget cuts that go beyond anything Democrats had previously been willing to consider. Five-term Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said he had never seen any spending reductions attached to a debt ceiling vote.
"It's inconceivable," Cole said. "Some of the members who haven't been here don't appreciate how much John Boehner has gotten for them."
Turned a significant bloc of voters? But
you knew that.
EJ Dionne:
Media reports are touting the Senate’s Gang of Six and its new budget outline. But the news that explains why the nation is caught in this debt-ceiling fiasco is the gang warfare inside the Republican Party. We are witnessing the disintegration of Tea Party Republicanism.
The Tea Party’s followers have endangered the nation’s credit rating and the GOP by pushing both House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor away from their own best instincts...
Unfortunately, neither of the two House leaders seems in a position to tell the obstreperous right that it is flatly and dangerously wrong when it claims that default is of little consequence. Rarely has a congressional leadership seemed so powerless.
Certainly the House has never seemed so leaderless.
NY Times editorial:
The House has been frittering away precious time on ideological games, forcing Congress to miss its Friday deadline for an agreement on raising the debt ceiling. Fortunately, there are signs of adulthood in Washington’s sandbox, and it remains possible that a deal could be reached to prevent the loss of America’s credit standing.
Nicholas Kristof:
Hmmm. The truth is that House Republicans don’t actually go far enough. They should follow the logic of their more visionary members with steps like these...
RENT OUT CONGRESS If the debt ceiling isn’t raised, we could also auction members of Congress for day jobs: Are you a financier who wants someone to flip burgers (steaks?) at your child’s birthday party? Why, here’s Eric Cantor! Many members of Congress already work on behalf of tycoons, and this way the revenue would flow to the Treasury.
Finally, if we risk default, let’s rent out the Capitol for weddings to raise money for the public good. Wouldn’t it be nice to see something positive emerge from the House?
Dana Milbank:
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that 80 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the way the federal government is working. Such a finding leads to an inevitable conclusion: The other 20 percent aren’t paying attention.
Charlie Cook:
A CBS News national survey of 810 adults conducted July 15-17 (margin of error plus or minus 4 percent) and released on Monday morning showed that only 43 percent of those polled approved of President Obama’s handling of the debt-ceiling negotiations and only 31 percent approved of what Democrats in Congress have done on the issue. But that amounted to a rousing public cheer compared to the jaw-dropping 71 percent disapproval for Republicans on the issue. Only 21 percent of respondents approved of GOP efforts...
Putting aside the asinine public pronouncements by some Republicans, such as “reelection is the furthest thing from my mind,” it’s pretty clear that many GOP members of Congress are more afraid of their base than they are of independent voters. Some fear that conservative and tea party supporters will stay home.
Really? Do they actually believe that, with President Obama at the top of the ticket and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid standing to benefit if they don’t vote, the hard-line conservatives will stay home?
Well, they could be as smart as Democrats were in 2010. We really taught them a lesson, didn't we?
WaPo:
The 135th and final flight of America’s space shuttle fleet landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday – ending the three-decade lifetime of a technologically remarkable and versatile spacecraft the likes of which the world is unlikely to see for a very long time.
"Hi, honey. I'm home."