When Erick Erickson wrote two days ago that the Republicans were winning the fight over ObamaCare, I chalked it up to him reading little more than The Drudge Report and some Breitbart rags. Likewise, his selective reading of polls. But his main concern in that piece was that conjoining the debt ceiling fight with the battle over the government shutdown would take the focus off ObamaCare and lead to no change in the law. Considering that he simultaneously thought that the Republicans could eliminate the medical device tax and enact the Vitter Amendment (eliminating the employer subsidy for some federal workers), he was plainly operating in a delusional otherworld.
Since then, things have deteriorated. Now, Erickson is simply distraught. First, the president held a press conference yesterday in which no reporters asked him about ObamaCare, then Rep. Paul Ryan wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in which he similarly failed to mention the health care law.
This is what desperation looks like:
I think somebody like Steve Scalise, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, needs to propose a short-term debt limit for a few weeks and attach to it the Full Faith and Credit Act that ensures the Treasury Department prioritizes interest payments in the event the debt limit is ever not increased. This would buy us some time to finish the fight to defund Obamacare and set us up well to fight the next long-term debt limit increase to the death by removing some of the President’s scare tactics. How do Republican Leaders not adopt and push such a proposal? How does Obama not accept it without looking completely unreasonable?
The Full Faith and Credit Act says that, in the event of a government default, the treasury bondholders get paid first. The proponents of this bill think that we could thereby avoid a technical “default” and avoid the consequences of a default. That idea is so wrongheaded that it would be dangerous to even humor such a bill. Remember that our credit rating was downgraded in 2011 and our borrowing costs were increased even though we never failed to pay a single bill. Moreover, imagine politicians trying to explain their vote for a bill that makes bondholders priority one and Social Security and Medicare recipients priority four and five, respectively? “How do Republican Leaders not adopt and push such a proposal? How does Obama not accept it without looking completely unreasonable?”
This suicide by the right would be more entertaining if all our livelihoods weren’t impacted.
Erickson’s position is interesting because his focus is so intensely locked on ObamaCare that he’s being critical of Paul Ryan for asking for much bigger concessions.
Republican Leaders are begging us to merge the continuing resolution fight and debt ceiling fight. They covet this with all their mind and heart.
They do not want a stand alone fight on Obamacare. They want to conflate it with the debt ceiling so they can do a grand bargain and leave Obamacare alone.
This shows how, in Erickson’s mind, the numbers in the budget and the generosity of our entitlement programs are peripheral and transitory concerns. For him, ObamaCare is a mortal threat that must be smothered in its crib. But, for all his thrashing and screaming, the GOP has already abandoned that fight. The best they can do now is to get some kind of language that will commit the administration to a new round of negotiations over a Grand Bargain.
And progressives should be fine with that. Standing strong has shattered Republican unity and exposed many of their fantasies. Working out a budget deal with the Republicans is never pleasant, but it is a legitimate and necessary part of governing in a divided government. In that process, they actually have the right to expect some concessions. May they learn how to accept them.
