Debt Ceiling “Insanity”
Are there any grown ups left in the Republican Party?
Dealing with the debt limit “as adults” doesn’t appear to be going well. This morning, two right-wing lawmakers — Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Rep.-elect Mike Kelly (R-Minn.) — reiterated their opposition to raising the debt limit on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Soon after, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that failing to raise the debt ceiling “would be very bad for the position of the United States in the world at large.” Graham, however, quickly followed that by saying he’s prepared to hold the debt limit hostage “until a plan is in place” for the nation’s long-term fiscal challenges that meets his satisfaction.
So much for dealing with this “as adults.”
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, doesn’t sound pleased with the direction of Republican rhetoric.
The chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers said today it would “insanity” for Congress to refuse to lift the nation’s debt ceiling, and that inaction would be “catastrophic” for the nation’s financial recovery.
“This is not a game,” CEA chairman Austan Goolsbee told Jake Tapper on ABC’s This Week. “The debt ceiling is not something to toy with.”
Republicans have really backed themselves into a corner by catering to the Tea Party, and I’m not certain how they get out of it. For two years they have tossed red meat and lies to this group so I don’t think they can suddenly play the reasonable/rational card. And I knew the debt ceiling was going to be a BIG issue for the Tea Party because, well… Duh, the word DEBT is in the title.
Jokes aside, this is not funny.
Republicans have really backed themselves into a corner by catering to the Tea Party, and I’m not certain how they get out of it.
Are you seriously “not certain?” Republicans will take the debt ceiling hostage, and Democrats will approve another plank in the right wing agenda in order to release the hostages. Lather, rinse, repeat. This is what we have taught them, and they have no reason to stop doing it until it stops working for them.
Any hostage will do, from super critical (debt ceiling), to very critical (UI extension) to regular critical (DADT repeal, same sex marriage). A GOP feint toward any one of these will cause Democrats to dissolve in a pool of tears and turn over the widow’s pension to the rich.
Social security cuts and/or privatization, cancellation of alternative energy subsidies, defeat of cap and trade, defeat of gas tax increases – that is just the beginning. These are all “wins” for the Tea Party, and are entirely within the GOP’s grasp within the next two years.
Jokes aside, this is not funny.
The time to take it seriously has come and gone. The enthusiasm gap was allowed to bloom and prosper by our own actions and lack of action. Now we are playing defense on the GOP’s home turf.
Not really.
Failing to extend the debt ceiling would not just derail the US economy, but a decent part of the rest of the world’s too. There isn’t a single thing about not extending the debt ceiling that creates a single American job. There isn’t much about any of the GOP agenda that is about creating a single American job, or about repairing the economy. Nancy Pelosi is still talking about the House’s job being jobs. The thing that needs to happen is for the rest of the Democrats to join her rhetoric. This is called throwing them the anvil. But why shouldn’t the GOP be in the business of blowing up the economy? This would be a repeat of their usual behavior.
Am I the only conservative left in the Republican Party? The Republicans lost all credibility with fiscal responsibility with the Tax Cut issue.
I could go through the economics of the whole thing, but consider this: Interest rates will increase next year. The percentage of our budget devoted to interest payments as a result of the Tax Cut is mind boggling. And as with the last 2 years, the tax cuts to the rich will not create a single job.
Failing to extend the debt ceiling would not just derail the US economy, but a decent part of the rest of the world’s too.
Republicans know this. That is what makes the debt ceiling such a good hostage. The only thing left to discover is which pillar of the Democratic agenda Obama will trade for the hostage this time. And when he does, I am sure we will read it on Dem bloggers’ lists of Obama achievements. All indications are Social Security.
The thing that needs to happen is for the rest of the Democrats to join her rhetoric.
If Democrats had followed Pelosi’s lead we wouldn’t be in this pickle. But they chose to follow Obama and Reid instead, so here we are. The Senate and Obama switching to Pelosi’s point of view is basically a pipe dream.
This is called throwing them the anvil.
Good advice for 2009. Nothing will succeed in making Repubs own the economy at this point. If the economy is tanking, Repubs will point to Democrats in the Senate and Democrats in the White House and blame the economy on “Dem obstructionism” preventing all those Republican policies from freeing up business to create jobs and delivering tax rebate checks to your mailbox.
If you want to throw Repubs an anvil, put a massive direct jobs creation bill on the floor, and veto everything until the Repubs tax the rich to pay for it.
Actually I don’t think we can even do that anymore with a GOP House.