Republican lawmakers tell ABC's Jonathan Karl that a "doomsday plan is becoming the most likely scenario":
House Republicans would allow a vote [a Democratic vote; Republicans will only vote "present"] on extending the Bush middle class tax cuts ... and offer the President nothing more: no extension of the debt ceiling, nothing on unemployment, nothing on closing loopholes. Congress would recess for the holidays and the president would face a big battle early in the year over the debt ceiling.
Next time, it'll be 14th Amendment-invocation time, by presidential decree: "The validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned."
One helluva chaotic mess, no doubt. Yet it's one helluva chaotic mess that would have been avoided, had President Obama forced the issue in 2011 (as I then recommended, to peals of scorn from more than a few readers). Permitting gangland government to prevail even once was not merely unwise at the time, it was a gilded invitation to the gangsters to ruthlessly extort us again and again.
Well, what's done is done and the president, it certainly seems, has learned his lesson. House Republicans are not what I introduced them as in this post: lawmakers. They're thugs. And one doesn't so much as negotiate with thugs as have it out with them--all the way, to the bloody end.
It is much easier done after winning the election.
Posted by: Robert Lipscomb | December 03, 2012 at 01:38 PM
Sooner or later, their bluff has to be called, or else we face Grover's weekly debt ceiling showdowns. Perhaps it should just be allowed to happen. Then the funds that the feds send to the moocher states can be withheld to pay for the rest. Combined with the sequestrations, this would pretty well take care of the debt issue until the GOP came to its knees.
Posted by: shsavage | December 03, 2012 at 02:04 PM
I remember disagreeing with you. I don't remember scorn. I don't think you've ever written anything that I thought deserved scorn. I still think you were wrong by the way. Fighting the fight then was very very risky. The economy was weaker, the Republicans stronger and a whole lot of people who desperately needed help in the way of things like unemployment insurance were about to get it in the neck. If that fight had not been a knock out and there was no guarantee it would have been, then Mitt Romney might be thinking about his Supreme court picks right about now. Honestly I can not think of a more satisfactory position in terms of fighting ground selection than exists right this minute. This isn't about Boehner negotiating with the Democrats or the administration. He never had the ability to do that and he doesn't now. Boehner has to negotiate with his own caucus and they aren't willing to give him anything more than they were in 2011. Which was pretty much nothing. Now they still don't have his back, except as a knife target, and the White House has probably surmised that there is no deal they can negotiate with Boehner that Boehner can sell to his caucus. Why bother trying? The economy is better and the terms of fiscal cliff deal not that frightening. Let's us all take a ride and see what the new year brings.
Posted by: Peter G | December 03, 2012 at 02:34 PM
Peter G, I totally agree with that.
Posted by: priscianus jr | December 03, 2012 at 08:51 PM
I, too, agree with Peter G.
Shsavage reminds us of the considerable advantage the executive has in the affair.
This will not end well for the Rs (of whom I'm one . . . sadly, the last Lincoln Republican).
Posted by: Jim Milstein | December 04, 2012 at 10:23 AM