Asked what the administration could do if GOP leaders hold to that posture, Clinton replied: “First the White House could blink. I hope that won’t happen. I don’t think they should blink.”
If Republicans will not accept revenues in a package to lift the debt ceiling by August 2, Clinton said, Obama should pursue a short-term agreement based on the spending reductions both sides have already accepted.
“There are some spending cuts they agree on …and he can take those and [get] an extension of the debt ceiling for six or eight months,” Clinton said.
Except, I don’t think that they should do a mini-deal. If the negotiators have gotten a trillion or so in cuts, Democrats have already done alot of compromising. Time for the Republicans to step up. (Lots of media are getting this wrong, BTW — doing the false equivalence thing that *both* Democrats and Republicans are being intransigent. Those $1 trillion or so in agreed cuts puts the lie to the intransigence of Democrats thing.) Kicking this can down the road means that this silly drama replays in 6 or eight months. We already know that republicans are not going to be working on governing from now until 2012. Why would they pay more attention to the debt ceiling in 6 or 8 months.
And I also think Clinton is wrong about the priority of debt reduction right now anyway, so he should save his critique of not embracing the cat food commission. Especially since the budget Obama sent up actually *does* embrace some of it.