Thursday Open Thread [12.13.12]

Ezra Klein reports:

The debt ceiling […] is proving a key sticking point, both in terms of politics and policy [in the fiscal cliff/austeritybomb negotiations. The political problem is that many Hill Republicans have convinced themselves that they’ll have the upper hand if they let the country topple fully or mostly over the cliff and then restart negotiations with a debt default looming in the background. They figure that although Obama really is willing to let the country go over the cliff, he’s not willing to let the country default and spark a global financial crisis. They are willing to do that, or they believe they can more credibly say they are, and that gives them leverage.

Whatever House Republicans might think, the White House is all steel when it comes to the debt ceiling. Their position is simple, and it’s typically delivered in the tone of voice that Bruce Willis reserves for talking to terrorists: They’re happy to raise the debt ceiling on their own, as would be the case under their proposal to take authority for the debt ceiling away from Congress. But if Congress rejects that offer, then the debt ceiling is Congress’s problem, and the White House will not help.

Good. Let’s hope the steel stays in the spine.

Politifact gives the award to Mitt Romney.

“It was a lie told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign — that Jeep was moving its U.S. production to China. It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep’s parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.”

“And they stood by the claim, even as the media and the public expressed collective outrage against something so obviously false.”

Finally it seems that when the Treasury Department sells the government’s remaining holdings in the bailed out AIG, it will make a net profit on the bailout of AIG of $22.7 billion. I hated the bailout too, but at least if it had to be done, the taxpayer made out with a profit.