Boehner's Tea Party bosses have been shaking his chain again so here he comes "getting tough" and "drawing a line in the sand" about demanding more spending cuts before raising the debt ceiling again at the end of the year.
Harry Reid showed his lack of concern about Boehner's sand.
"But Reid had his own message for the Speaker. The Senate leader, according to a Democratic aide, “conveyed his view that any discussion of the debt ceiling is premature until after the sequester takes effect or is replaced with a balanced agreement, and after Congress deals with the expiring Bush tax cuts.”
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/05/boehner-debt-ceiling-chicken-20.html
Boehner's theatrics apparently are gaining him diminishing returns. The bottom line is that this time the Democrats actually have the better hand.
"In making his demand for more spending cuts, Boehner staked out a clear position that House Republicans can run on this fall, and delivered a warning to Democrats who believe they have more leverage in the debate over the Bush tax rates and the looming sequester cuts to the military, which Republicans in particular abhor."
We can see from Sen. Reid's comments that this clear position has the Democrats running scared. As long as they keep in mind that this is a winning issue for them the have nothing to fear from the GOP's tired bag of tricks. The whole hostage taking, holding my breath till I'm blue thing is again suffering from the law of diminishing returns.
Unlike the last two years-the end of 2010 and the Summer of 2011 the Dems clearly have the better hand this time. The GOP really has no leverage. If they refuse to make a deal-which is their usual game-then the military cuts they hate take effect and the Bush tax cuts end.
Are they going to let that happen? Yes? Great-then we finally get rid of the Bush tax cuts which I hated since I first heard Bush's pitch on back in 1999. Are they going to not let that happen? Great, Dems win in that case to.
The GOP actually has a weak hand this time. For once the Democrats have a hostage they should be perfectly willing to shoot. So long as they are they should win this round.
Amazing that Laurence O'Donnell was right about Obama's "eleventy dimensional chess" after all. David Corn's new book shows it in clear detail.
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