The Debt Ceiling and the Boys of Summer
The Washington Nationals are ten games out of first place in their division, but if you'd like to see hardball played beautifully in Washington, D.C. this summer, skip the ballpark and go to Capitol Hill.
With President Obama at the plate, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor just threw a gorgeous brushback, dropping out of the debt ceiling negotiations with Vice President Biden.
Mr. Cantor, in an interview after a negotiating session he described as bitterly contentious, said he would not be attending Thursday's scheduled meeting of the bipartisan deficit-reduction leadership group because he believed it was time for the negotiations to move to a higher level...
[H]e said there could be no agreement on an overall package without breaking the impasse between Republicans' refusal to accept any tax increase, and Democrats insistence that some tax increases be part of the deal.
"We have to get over this impasse on taxes," he said....House Democrats have been expressing increasing anxiety that the budget deal would be comprised only of spending cuts....[A]t the same time, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has been sounding an increasingly strident message of opposition to any form of tax increase in the budget deal.
House Majority Leader Cantor, Speaker Boehner, Senate Minority Leader McConnell--we've been worried here at Ricochet ever since the November election that they'd prove weak, failing to take advantage of the victory. But just look at them. Whereas the President originally seems to have believed he could force the Republicans to enact a "clean" increase in the debt ceiling--that is, to increase the ceiling without any spending cuts--the administration itself, in the person of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is now talking about spending concessions in the trillions. And now that they've got the administration moving their way, are our boys cutting a deal?
Nope. Not yet. Not until the Democrats stop insisting on tax hikes.
Hardball. When the good guys are playing it well, there's nothing in politics more fun to watch.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: The Debt Ceiling and the Boys of Summer
To quote Kevin Williamson, "How you know the White House is not taking the bipartisan deficit-reduction talks seriously: Joe Biden is in charge. I’ve made that observation before, and people think it’s a quip, but I mean it. The vice president is a fundamentally unserious figure, especially on fiscal issues."
Mar '11
Re: The Debt Ceiling and the Boys of Summer
OK, conspiracy theory time. The Dems know that 2012 will be as bad as, if not wore than, 2010. Their only chance is to shore up the base and hope for a real game changer. They want a government shutdown to cause chaos and blame it on the Reps. They bought the propaganda that the 1995 shutdown damaged the Reps.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2011/02/lessons_from_the_great_governm.html
The Dems picked up only 9 seats in the 1996 election even though Clinton won reelection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1996
Heist by their own petard?
Edited on June 24, 2011 at 2:21amJan '11
Re: The Debt Ceiling and the Boys of Summer
This is ever so slightly encouraging. I hope Cantor & Boehner realize their necks are on the line this time. I'm worried that the traction Romney is getting may make these guys think the conservative/tea party base is not serious. If they give in, there could be a serious fracture in the party - I don't think I'll stay with the Republicans this time.
If they don't get a good deal, we're basically just as doomed as we'd be if Obama is re-elected. I don't think our system can withstand much more of this.