NRO looses its way once in a while, but how bad does a squish thing have to be to earn this rejection?
“Some Republicans are getting desperate over the debt-ceiling debate, but we hope not desperate enough to embrace the Gang of Six proposal. It may be the worst of the debt-ceiling compromises placed before them to date.”
[snip]
“Republicans put a serious plan before the country when the House passed the Ryan budget. Democrats rejected it. President Obama’s fiscal commission put a serious plan before the country, and Democrats declared it dead on arrival because it would cut the spending that must be cut. The Democrats, it cannot be repeated often enough, did not pass a budget at all, never mind a balanced one, when they controlled both houses of Congress. They won’t pass one even now. President Obama has disavowed his own budget, which was defeated 97–0 in the Senate. And the Gang of Six plan, it should be noted, is not an actual budget, either: It’s a plan to have a plan — and a poor one at that.”
update: The NYT is suggesting that Boehner and Obama are nearing a “grand” deal. And a Congressional insider is telling Rush Limbaugh that Boehner has called a special meeting of the full Republican conference for tomorrow morning — something that is generally done when a deal is being floated for consideration.
Why Boehner would entertain any deal before the Democrats put themselves on record as being against Cut Cap and Balance is, well, curious. But then, the entirety of the Republican strategy — from Boehner ‘s upfront contention that the debt ceiling must necessarily to be raised to the Gang of 6 proposal being floated on the day of the House vote on CCB — has been scattershot and amateurish.
The House holding its ground was the last best hope the GOP had. As a party, I mean. But Boehner is looking to cave. The pressure is just too much for him, and the job too big. As in previous compromises he’s negotiated, Boehner will call a turd a gold brick. He’ll hope that the the tax increases are sufficiently hidden as corrections to “loopholes” in the tax code. And then he’ll try to sell us on the happy “compromise.” Because the establishment GOP is part of the permanent ruling class. And in the end, this is the ruling class compromising with itself. The Hill:
In a news conference at the Capitol, Boehner pressed anew for the GOP’s “cut, cap and balance” plan but also pushed back against conservatives in his caucus who are unwilling to move beyond it.
The Speaker was asked to respond to comments from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, who described the “cut, cap and balance” plan as “the compromise” and signed a pledge opposing other alternatives to raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.
“I’m sure that we’ve got some members who [aren’t willing to compromise], but I do not believe that’s anywhere close to a majority,” Boehner said.
Asked earlier if he had prepared his membership to compromise, he replied: “I have.”
Some of us are going to be looking for other places to go should the GOP cave here — and why wouldn’t we, inasmuch as a cave here by the GOP, particularly one that extends the problem beyond the 2012 elections, would be a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a pointed repudiation of the wishes of those who thrust the GOP back into power in the House in the first place?
The GOP establishment won’t back Allen West; they don’t defend attacks against Bachmann, or Palin, etc. Because the truth is, they despise conservatives and classical liberals.
They are part of the problem. I refuse to be.
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update 2: Cantor denies deal.
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update 3: Details leaking out. $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years with no revenue increases. So essentially, cuts that won’t ever happen in exchange for a raise in the debt ceiling. But the GOP will declare victory because its resolve forced Obama to drop his demands for a tax increase. During a depression. And Obama will have gotten what he wanted by starting the bidding high and then coming down to a baseline of $2.6 trillion in more spending room, paid for by the GOP House thrust into power by fiscal conservatives.
Or, if you prefer, status quo DC do nothingness. And that’s because the deal being struck is between ruling class elites and ruling class elites, where party affiliation doesn’t much matter. The theater of the last several weeks was always going to lead to this: the government granting itself more spending in exchange for the promise of cuts (that future Congresses are in no way bound by) with we the people to be saddled with the bill sometime in the future when the whole thing finally collapses.
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update 4: Boehner called Limbaugh’s show and denied a deal has been made. Pressed, though, he tipped his hand: it would be irresponsible to “default,” Boehner said; our credit would take a hit without “a deal to cut spending”; and “frankly,” the GOP is looking at at least a half dozen “fallback positions” while trying to push CCB.
— All of which is to say that Boehner has signaled that the GOP position is that the debt ceiling must be raised, and bullshit provisions of future cuts outlined such that Moody’s and S&P are mollified.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but refusing to raise the debt ceiling would lead to immediate cuts and would not cause a default; but it would show the country that the GOP is serious about doing what it is we elected them to do. It would also show the Democrats that Cut Cap and Balance is the compromise — it gives them the debt ceiling raise they’re asking for in exchange for structural changes that prevent future crises.
And that should be the message, plain and simple. The calls for the Dems to “compromise” has been met. They’ve offered no plan. And the GOP can’t be expected to negotiate with itself.
At least, that’s what the message would be were the GOP leadership serious about the concerns of its constituents. They aren’t. In the end, they’ll take any deal that saves face and keeps the government juggernaut rolling along. That Boehner has accepted and incorporated the left’s framing of the issue — that a failure to raise the debt ceiling = default — is the important tell, and always has been.
So. Fuck them.
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update 5: Question: why isn’t GOP leadership out there screaming to the press that the ONLY PLAN THAT MEETS THE REQUIREMENTS OF MOODY’S OR THE S&P is CCB — and that should the Senate not vote for it, and the President not sign it, our credit rating will be downgraded, interest rates will rise (they are being kept down artificially to begin with), and any other plans’ “cuts” will be wiped out by such a contingency.
We need leadership. Now. Not a fucking “deal.”
I swear to Christ, we’re doomed.
Why does John Boehner hate Paul Ryan?
I liked the comment by DOOM161:
All the rest is kabuki.
rush limbaugh – email from eric cantor: there’s no meeting scheduled tomorrow
When you realize, down in your soul, that we are already screwed, there is no cavalry on the horizon, and there’s nothing we can do, micro or macro, to stop it … it’s actually kind of liberating.
newrouter …. Aw. Cantor still has hope. That’s so cute!
don’t forget the mbm likes to make sh*t up
Let’s hope Cantor is keeping them honest. I would feel better hearing it from Ryan.
At the end of the hour, Rush reported that Cantor’s office is disavowing knowledge of any deal.
Jordon ought to challenge Boehner’s leadership (and I have no idea if the rules allow such a challenge). Somebody in the caucus needs to shake these guys up before they fuck up bad enough to find themselves back in the minority.
Unfortunately that’s where they’re most comfortable.
link
No one is so free as the man with nothing to lose Ella.
Nice of S&P to clarify that the ability to borrow more money doesn’t have them worried nearly so much as our questionable ability to pay back what we’ve already borrowed.
Now. If only the GOP was smart enough to use that to insist on Cut Cap and Balance as the only real way forward.
Stop spending. Cut the absolute size of the Federal government. Reduce regulation imposed on Americans — across the board.
No new “programs”. Fire Federal government workers. Eliminate Federal agencies and their oppressive and costly regulatory schemes along with them.
Enough “platitudes” for ya? There’s more where those came from.
And example of what works: http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/07/wisconsin-has-largest-one-month-gain-of.html
Team Boehner, take notes.
This is beginning to look like a very good idea, although I don’t know whether you intend merely that Jim Jordan raise and lead the question as opposed to his being the man to choose as Boehner’s replacement. At any rate, it wouldn’t hurt for us to express to our Representatives an opinion in this direction, if only as a means to convey our growing distrust of their judgment.
Hell, they could dust of any budget between ’06 and ’08 and repass that. Immediate cuts.
sdferr, I don’t give a shit who becomes Speaker of the House, so long as the rules are such that the real power is within the caucus itself. The Speaker ought to be a pubic face.
But the most pubic face in the House? Eeeeek.
update 3: Details leaking out. $3 trillion in cuts over 10 years with no revenue increases. So essentially, cuts that won’t ever happen in exchange for a raise in the debt ceiling.
The deal to solve our dependance on borrowed money is to borrow more and tax less?
This is like when the GOP was saying they wanted to repeal the individual mandate, but keep the pre-existing condition coverage regulation…
Epic fail.
typos are a bitch
Ernst – I mentioned that before. Pass any budget from 2000 through 2006. You know, back when old peole were dying, children starving in the streets, minorities being trampled upon …. I would also vote on Barcky’s only actualy solution, his budget proposal, every day, until he steps up to the plate.
So we’ve gone from the Le Petomane Maneuver to the Wimpy Gambit? Do I have that right?
I love how this becomes 3,000,000,000,000 in cuts, rather than 3,000,000,000,000 less in debt than they had previously planned on. Rough numbers, this would put our debt in the 12,000,000,000,000 range instead of 15,000,000,000,000 range. Sweet. Not.
Anyone know of a good source on distilling whiskey? I’m thinking I should augment my “nobody messes with the brewer” plan to include “you can buy anything with whiskey.”
I’ve had similiar thoughts squid.
And the revenuers ought to be easier to
bribemollify once they realize that they’re now responsible for their own financial planning.Boehner’s tweet.
That Boehner has accepted and incorporated the left’s framing of the issue … is the important tell, and always has been
They never get it, do they? They never get that the bully’s framing of any issue ought to be rejected outright; even declaring the opposite is still to accept the bully’s worldview.
All the more reason to prevent U.S. congresscritters from meeting in D.C. more than once or twice per year: make ’em stay home, where they belong, and where their constituents can get a word in edgewise.
typos are a bitch
Or hilarious, depending on who makes them.
There are roughly 90 Congressmen who appear willing to stand.
There are 240 Republican Congressmen, 192 Democrats. So a mere 26 + Republican defectors gives any “compromise” to the Democrats.
Who are they? Who will they be? It probably hardly matters from Boehner’s point of view, since he can simply assume they are there. So he caves.
In my public finance firm, they’ve actually pulled “pubic” out of our standard MS Office dictionaries, so that it gets flagged as a misspelling. We’re not the only ones to get caught in such an embarrassing typo, either. I couldn’t tell you how many executive searches I’ve worked on where we saw resumes describing candidates as “dedicated pubic servants.”
Eight years I’ve been doing this, and I still giggle like a 12-year-old when one of those shows up in my inbox…
I was going to buy one of these …. http://www.lexus.com/LFA/, but I compromised and will only buy one of these …. http://m.mercedes-amg.com/vehicles/slsr
I made over 100,000 dollars in cuts to my household budget today. Yay me!
I think it’s past time that Boehner dedicate himself to crying with his orange family.
JD —
If you’re going to buy anything, buy this.
Me, I’m driving a ’93 Landcruiser and a ’94 Jeep. Turns out there’s not a big money making market for pissing off “pragmatic” GOPers.
I was joking. The owner of my company has an original Shelby, autographed by Carroll on the inside of the hood, and engine block. I once got to touch it.
I have cars on my mind today, since on a job site yesterday, someone scraped by driver side, from front door to rear fender with either a trailer bed for hauling heavy equipment, or even a dozer or grader blade.
Unnnnh. That’s evil JD. Had that happen to my parked F-150 during the 1996 blizzard in Philly. Guy got stuck — drunk and sideways — on Poplar St., then rocked and backed his way down the whole side of the truck.
I think it would be a big mistake to force a default, and yes I know that not raising the debt ceiling doesn’t actually force a default, but the effect would be much the same and allow Big Media and Big Democrat and Big Republican to paint those so forcefully advocating responsbility as bomb throwers who just want to see the world burn. It doesn’t make it right or true, but that is what would happen. Better to avoid the most catastrophic results for now and continure to make the best case possible through the next election and let the people decide.
Would I agree to raise the debt deiling by, say, $4T if it was accompanied by a real plan with real commitments instead of hand waving and accounting gimmicks that cut spending and actually started to pay down debt, even if it took four or five years to get there? Yes, yes I would, and the markets would start doing backflips if they say a government that showed any seriousness at all when it came to having a date when we actually stop digging and start filling in the hole. Of course, this assumes that subsequent Congresses and administrations would honor it, but that’s kind of a different problem that can be addressed at the ballot box.
[…] Jeff G on compromise: Not to put too fine a point on it, but refusing to raise the debt ceiling would lead to immediate […]
Futurama’s Morbo agrees:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bbIBs0P2t0&feature=player_embedded
Lawyers Guns and Money…
The left and the right are useless…stock up on what’s left over.
http://nation.foxnews.com/dick-morris/2011/07/20/dick-morris-op-ed-checkmating-obama
Any merit to this?