http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/01/debt-ceiling-dementia-gop-needs-help.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiaryOfARepublicanHater+%28Diary+of+a+Republican+Hater%29
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/01/debt-ceiling-chicken-and-wny-gop-is-not.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiaryOfARepublicanHater+%28Diary+of+a+Republican+Hater%29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/04/the-debt-ceiling-isnt-obamas-problem-its-the-gops-problem/
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/01/gop-plays-politics-of-defaultdefeat.html
It does seem aware of the need to try to win over public opinion to the extent that's possible when you're general position is "Cut Medicare benefits or we blow up the economy."
So it's come up with cockamamie internal polls that supposedly show that there's no risk if the GOP blocks us raising the debt ceiling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/01/04/ignore-bogus-polling-on-debt-limit/
It's also tried to argue that maybe defaulting on our debts won't be so bad and that it's only fair for the President to negotiate: he got his tax hikes now he should divvy up $1 of spending cuts for every dollar you raise the debt ceiling. Of course, truth he already agreed to lots of spending cuts in 2011.
Still the larger point is that this is that $1 spending cut is in no way commensurable with a $1 raise in the debt limit. You're looking at apples and oranges as the debt ceiling is not the President's request for new spending but only paying up the old. Essentially this is spending that Congress passed and now won't pay up.
"The Congressional Republicans are already getting ready for that fight. “In a couple of months, the president will ask us to raise the nation’s debt limit,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader. “We cannot agree to increase that borrowing limit without agreeing to reforms that lower the avalanche of spending that’s creating this debt in the first place.”
"That’s the usual Republican disinformation. Mr. Obama is required by law to ask Congress to authorize more borrowing to cover debts on spending that Congress already authorized. The president makes no decision here; he just delivers the news."
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/passive-resistance/
Yet there's worry that the President is not up to the task of this propaganda war.
"Mr. Obama’s choices are limited. He can invoke the 14th Amendment and unilaterally raise the debt ceiling. (The 14th Amendment says the government may take no action that calls into question “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law.”) But he has never shown the stomach for that kind of confrontation, and the White House has already ruled out that idea."
"His only other real choice (setting aside the trillion-dollar coin idea as too cute) is just as confrontational. It’s to keep his word by simply refusing to enter into negotiations and telling the Republicans that the proverbial ball is in their court. That they can either vote to increase the debt ceiling, or not, and risk both an economic collapse as well as the blame for a collapse."
"To make that work, Mr. Obama will have to forcefully counter Republican propaganda over the debt and the nature of the debt ceiling, which he hasn’t done successfully in the past. And he’ll have to stand firm, which he hasn’t done successfully in the past."
"Some on the right, at least outside of the official Party, are easing Mr. Obama’s path by publicly acknowledging the weakness of the Republican position. The Wall Street Journal editorial page warned yesterday that if the G.O.P. fights over the ceiling, “Mr. Obama will say Republicans are risking national default and recession, most of Wall Street will echo him, and the Treasury will maneuver to apply maximum political pressure—for example, by claiming it can’t pay Social Security benefits.”
"More to the point, it said “you can’t take a hostage you aren’t prepared to shoot.”
"Still, Mr. Obama should remember that if he makes any offer linked to the debt ceiling, he will have lost the war. He will end up negotiating with himself again, as he did over the fiscal cliff, and the debt ceiling nonsense will become a permanent part of budget talks."
As I've said before I don't get why Obama isn't considering the 14th Amendment. It clearly states that there's no legitimate reason to inhibit the U.S. government from paying its debts. I do wonder if the platinum coin is a bit too cute. However, why not do the 14th? Too Kevin Drum's claim that a court will not honor the platinum coin as clearly it's intent was just about sales on commemorative items should be added the question whether or not a court would be willing to rule in such a way that it would blow up the economy.
Overall though I don't agree that the President negotiated with himself on the fiscal cliff or that it was a bad deal. It was worth avoiding going over-unless there was a decent deal on the table which there was as going over for a few weeks or months would have cost undue pain on workers and the unemployed in the meantime.
I don't think Obama is doing a bad job at all regarding the debt ceiling-or are other Democrats, like Schumer and Reid-again I wish he wouldn't take the 13th amendment off the table even as a rhetorical threat.
No doubt though that the HuffingtonPost has it right: the debt ceiling hostage takers are dangerous psychopaths and that the media must be weaned off of the idea that this is just a normal negotiation or horse trading.
"But what's changed to make things worse is that this is no longer mere idle talk and procedural bravado -- there are people in Congress who truly see default as an ideal alternative to having to concede any points in what should be a rational process of negotiation and deal-making. Rep. Michele Bachmann made her willingness to destroy the global economy for the glory of Tea Party Caucus a central selling point for her presidential candidacy. And now, legislators who were once considered reasonable have become enablers to the lunatics. (And unfortunately for everyone, a key enabler to this madness has been that former Illinois Senator, who opened the door to negotiating over the debt ceiling back when he was still hopeful of a "grand bargain" on the debt.)"
"But the enabling isn't just happening in Congress, it's happening in the media, as well, which is why another thing I would like to make clear is that those who see debt ceiling lunacy as a legitimate side in a debate or just one more interesting point of view among many are just as culpable in what could be a pending economic calamity as the lunatics themselves. I'm not alone in this concern. Greg Sargent has done a fine job outlining the logical fallacy behind legitimizing debt ceiling hostage taking and notes in particular that by and large, the media has framed the entire fiscal debate incorrectly:
Indeed, you can read through much of the coverage and come away with the sense that this is a typical negotiation: Democrats want a rise in the debt ceiling; Republicans want spending cuts; therefore, the two sides are squaring off for a game of chicken to see who can extract more from the other. That’s not what’s happening at all, and any accounts that portray it as such present a deeply unbalanced picture.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/debt-ceiling-2013_n_2410622.html
The writer of this piece, Jason Linkins, also makes the crucial point that as silly as the platinum coin idea may be so is the very idea of a debt ceiling. I don't think it was possible-as some libs do-that it was feasible to make taking the debt ceiling off the table part of the fiscal cliff negotiations but no doubt the ultimate goal must be the elimination of this anachronism.
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