Obama Gave Republicans and Offer They Couldn't Refuse: Nothing

       Call it the GOP's Wylie Coyote Moment. They had no leverage and this was obvious for months and a number of Republicans had argued this to. However, it took them a long time to realize it. 

       "WHAT REPUBLICANS WON IN THE STANDOFF: This quote, from GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, just about sums it up:

“Goose egg, nothing, we got nothing.”

      "But, look, it’s been obvious for months that the debt limit never actually gave Republicans any real leverage. It was only a matter of time until this basic fact forced Republicans’ hand.

     http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/17/the-morning-plum-dems-break-gop-addiction-to-chaos-governing-but-will-it-last/

     So just like in  Road Runner physics, they didn't fall off the cliff till they looked down. 

     I love Massie's comment. Krugman brought out the Corleone video on Tuesday in anticipation: My answer is this: nothing. 

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/almost-over/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnmIoF_2Q4Y

     Then you had Politico this morning that had a great front page-they juxtaposed a story on the left of how Obama accomplished what he had set out to do and the story on the right had the title House GOP extracts no concessions in government shutdown deal. 

     "At the beginning of October, Republicans decided against funding the government to try to force Democrats to change Obamacare. Sixteen days later, it remains fully funded, and President Barack Obama is expected sign a debt ceiling increase and extension of government funding without giving up a single thing."

     " Despite tossing and turning for weeks, Republicans led by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) ended up extracting exactly no concessions from the Obama administration in the final deal that was heading for a vote Wednesday evening. Almost every time their leadership came up with a plan to redirect the debate, it was knocked down."

      http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/barack-obama-government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-98440.html?hp=t1_s

     
     http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/house-gop-extracts-no-concessions-government-shutdown-debt-ceiling-deal-98443.html?hp=t2_s

     Well it's not like nothing's changed-the economy is weaker now and expected to grow at a lower rate for the rest of the year with the economy already losing $24 billion dollars of GDP. Still, there's no question they got the Corleone deal:

     The question is where this leaves us going forward. There is an optimistic and pessimistic case-the pessimists think that this will just happen in January after the government needs to be funded again. I disagree with this. I think this will have a real chilling effect on future such boondoggles to nowhere. 

     Now it might be that Ted Cruz and friends will be ready for Government Shutdown 3.0. However, will Boehner, McConnell and the rest of the GOP establishment? No. To be sure, McConnell was never ready for 2.0. 

     http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/mitch-mcconnell-senate-deal-obamacare-government-shutdown-98496_Page2.html

      I guess the question is whether the GOP leadership is going to be willing to do this again in just a few months in an election year. I can't imagine they will. They never intended to get into this one. Paul Krugman once wrote about The Accidental Theorist. 

     http://www.amazon.com/Accidental-Theorist-Dispatches-Science-ebook/dp/B0039H35M6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382058940&sr=1-1&keywords=paul+krugman+the+accidental+theorist

    This was the Accidental Government Shutdown. 

     http://washingtonexaminer.com/gop-congressman-we-stumbled-into-war-over-obamacare/article/2536874

     I agree with Brian Beutler:

     "Last night, Republicans stood aside as Congress increased the debt limit and reopened the government. In return, they got nothing. Or more accurately, they got something that already existed, and gave Democrats something they’d been blocking for months."

     "The deal Harry Reid struck with Mitch McConnell includes a formal negotiation over the federal government, which GOP senators and various House Republicans have objected to since the spring. In exchange, Republicans got a redundant measure to assure Obamacare’s existing income verification mechanisms are actually verifying beneficiary incomes (for a less bullish take on this measure, see David Dayen’s take here)."

     "It’s a fig leaf, minus the properties that allow it to conceal anyone’s nether regions. A fig leaf with the chlorophyll sapped out of it. Republicans can spin it among themselves as a Democratic concession, but they can’t rightly look back at the ruin of the past month, and the content of the deal, and expect that they can extort unreciprocated concessions from Democrats next time around."

    "The questions on everyone’s mind are, Will they try anyhow? And what will the coming months look like if they don’t?"

     "I think the answer to the first question is “probably not,” mostly for the reasons I noted above. Republicans didn’t just sacrifice an incredible amount of public cachet in this fight. Their leaders also revealed, for the second time this year, that they’re not willing to actually allow the country to default just to preserve party unity or pressure the president to cave. Unless they’re stricken with a nihilistic sense of bitterness and the feeling that they have nothing left to lose, there’s little reason to think they’re going to approach coming deadlines the same way they approached these past two."

      http://www.salon.com/2013/10/17/gops_huge_tea_party_mess_has_only_just_begun/

     The leadership will want no part of this. They wanted no part of the least one either and only meant to pacify the Tea Partiers without going over the ledge. However, they fell. I don't think they make this mistake again.