It looks like Speaker Boehner doesn’t plan on actually letting the country default on its debts. Yet, he doesn’t plan on extending the debt ceiling, either. At least, he doesn’t plan on extending it for more than a month or two at a time.
I ask Mr. Boehner if he will take the debt-ceiling talks to the brink—risking a government shutdown and debt downgrade from the credit agencies—given that it didn’t work in 2011 and President Obama has said he won’t bargain on the matter.
The debt bill is “one point of leverage,” Mr. Boehner says, but he also hedges, noting that it is “not the ultimate leverage.” He says that Republicans won’t back down from the so-called Boehner rule: that every dollar of raising the debt ceiling will require one dollar of spending cuts over the next 10 years. Rather than forcing a deal, the insistence may result in a series of monthly debt-ceiling increases.
Creating an atmosphere of monthly crisis and permanent uncertainty over whether or not we will honor our debts is not going to protect our nation’s credit rating. Boehner’s current plan will probably result in a downgrade of our credit rating.
If the bills due are for legislation Congress already passed, how does Boehner even make sense? What he’s proposing recreates a cliff every month with the continual threat of an avalanche. It’s preposterous.
I guess the thinking is that as long as the majority of the voting public doesn’t understand what the debt ceiling is or how it works, the GOP don’t have to bother even pretending to make sense. They just have to keep the pile of “BHO has to stop spending so much money” bs fresh, and they can keep getting away with it.
There are still seniors in FL who believe Mitt Romney would do a better job protecting SocSec and Medicare.
this is patently absurd
Grover blessed the Fiscal Cliff tax raise but simultaneously put out there the idea of doing the Debt Limit debate month by month. Rep have a twisted way of saying thanks for the support.
A debt limit debate every month should make the stock market a roller coaster ride with maybe a car or more careening off into space. Hope some of the GOP House likes the ride. The instability is not only unnecessary and risky; it’s insane.
“Unless and until we can loudly criticize the Dems for making the unpopular cuts we want to make, we’ll keep threatening to not pay for things we’ve already agreed to pay for.”
Shorter corporate media:
“Both side blah blah blah …”
Is this anything but an obstruction tactic? Manufacturing crises is a dandy way to do nothing while appearing to do something.
I like his statement, “I need this job like a hole in the head.”
If you feel that way, then quit. More time for drinks on the links.
My favorite line from the WSJ article:
“In the end, most of our members wanted this to pass, but they didn’t want to vote for it.”
Bring out the trillion dollar coins! It really doesn’t matter how legally dubious it is. The 14th Amendment is maybe a little dubious too, but a court battle is fine. If it goes to the Supreme Court it’s going to be a huge story, and it’s going to be increasingly obvious that what the fight is about is that Obama is refusing to destroy the global economy as the Republicans are demanding.
My own legally dubious theory is that Congress is empowered by the Constitution to pay the debts of the United States. And it seems obvious to me that the powers granted to Congress should also be considered as responsibilities. After all, if the nation is invaded, I don’t think Congress has the option of not providing for its defense. If Congress abdicated its responsibilities in time of war, I think the President would be justified in defending it anyway.
Well, let’s see. For the last two years, the liars of the “conservative” movement, Repub party, various rightwing pseudo-economists, etc, etc, got on the corporate “news” shows and blathered that Obama’s (unspecified) spending and (unidentified) job killing regulayshuns were creating “uncertainty” that was continuing to be a drag on the economy—all of which was dutifully reported as a crucial national story by our crackerjack DC and national teevee media. The entire “story” consisted of serial Repub yapping of the word “uncertainty”.
Now Boner and his Boneheads plan to only increase the nation’s debt ceiling on a month by month basis, creating a monthly question as to whether the nation will pay all its bills in a timely manner.
What were you sayin’ about “uncertainty” and the economy again, Weeping Boner? Hello, corporate media “journalists”, hello? Anyone there? Hellloooooo…
I can relate; that’s what it was like paying bills when I was in school. the old system of writing other checks against checks that hadn’t cleared yet, hoping they all reshuffle in a way that doesn’t incur overdraft fees.
From Maureen Dowd recently:
So, the speaker rolls around on the floor quacking at Michele Bachmann?
And it “works”?
This seems like big news.
Does Michele quack back?
Does anyone have the video?