Top Headline Comments 12-11-12

Happy Tuesday.

Andy sent some old posts from back in the 2011 debt ceiling debate. Here's one from me, one from Drew, and one from me again. I'd honestly forgotten that we've been having this "Let it Burn" debate for quite a bit longer than just the past month:

Purists insist that the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan that passed the House (thank you, Speaker Boehner) is still viable, though Reid shot it down in the Senate, but there is no reason to believe that is the case. The Senate won't vote for it and the President won't sign it. And leveraging the threat of economic calamity isn't changing that.

What might change that particular stalemate would be to push past the August 2 (or is it August 10?) deadline, let our AAA rating be lost, let federal disbursements be disrupted, and use the actual economic calamity as leverage for CCB and the Balanced Budget Amendment. That is the strategy that the purists are suggesting now. Of course, there's no reason to believe that Republicans will not be blamed in whole or in part for this "Let it Burn" plan and it has the smell of desperation about it. While it may be fun to imagine using economic Armageddon to get everything we want without having to compromise on anything, they're playing with people's lives and livelihoods in a particularly cynical and unprincipled manner.

And here's RD saying the final debt ceiling deal wasn't a capitulation crossed with Ace, who said it was a capitulation.

In other words, doesn't seem like much has changed, except this time the GOP is having to negotiate against both itself and President Obama rather than itself and Senator Reid. You will recall that back then Obama was taking a much more hands-off role.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 06:53 AM

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