Ezra Klein has some very good advice for the Democrats. Rather than focusing so much on how to sunset the irresponsible and budget-busting Bush tax cuts for the rich, they should be focused on how to raise the debt ceiling without finding themselves in a hostage situation. And they should be more concerned about extending unemployment insurance, too. The right strategy is to find a way to force through a vote on raising the debt ceiling by coupling it with a vote on something else that has to pass.
Mr. [Pete] Sessions suggested Mr. Boehner would talk with President Barack Obama about an agreement that could include a debt limit hike packaged with a rollback of parts of Mr. Obama’s health plan.
Mr. Sessions said the issue should not to be politicized, an exhortation likely to be met with skepticism by the Democrats who were targeted by GOP attacks on the issue. “It’s very important to understand that we have a responsibility not to create any issue that divides our country unnecessarily,” he said.
If the Republicans try to roll back ObamaCare by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, here’s what we’d face:
If an increase in the current debt limit of $14.3 trillion does not pass, it would suggest the country may not meet its obligations and would shake the financial system. It could rock the bond market, rattle the dollar and scare away foreign buyers of U.S. debt.
It seems to me that the Democrats should be focused on avoiding that situation. Ezra’s plan just might work.
The right outcome here is not the end of the tax cuts for the rich, though that might be nice. It’s an extension of unemployment insurance and an increase in the debt ceiling. Democrats shouldn’t vote with Republicans to extend the tax cuts — which is, of course, the only way the tax cuts can be extended — unless Republicans will simultaneously vote with them to extend UI and lift the debt ceiling.
Either way, we’re going to have to get used to making some painful concessions, but at least we can be smart about it.