How the Republican capitulation over the debt ceiling is good for Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Republican capitulation over the debt ceiling, finally agreeing to a clean increase instead of demanding a ransom and thereby threatening national and possibly global economic apocalypse, is indeed a very big deal. There was a great deal of Republican opposition in the House, where the increase required Democrats to join forces with John Boehner and the Republican leadership, as well as in the Senate, where enough Republicans joined Democrats to overcome a Ted Cruz-led filibuster, but at the end of the day the hostage-taking extremists who generally run the Republican Party were put in their place for the good of the country, and, yes, let's be clear about this, for the good of the Republican Party, whose corporate backers demand debt ceiling increases, which of course are good for business, and which would not have fared well in the eyes of the public, nor likely at the polls come November, in the event of yet another crisis.

Indeed, while I applaud this increase, as anyone who cares about good governance and the health of the economy must, there's no denying that it was a smart move for the Republican leadership to do what it did. Because while there will be some initial backlash from the Tea Party base, as well as from Tea Party Republicans in Congress like Cruz, and while those facing primary challenges like Mitch McConnell may have given the party's far right some ammunition, the party now avoids a protracted fight over the debt ceiling that would only have ended badly for Republicans, that would have deepened the already deep division within the party, and that would have been a significant distraction from the current Republican agenda.

And just what is that agenda? Basically, with the midterms in sight, to throw every possible lie and distortion at President Obama, to highlight the make-believe scandals (Benghazi, IRS) and to try to turn voters against Obamacare by scaring the shit out of them with sensationalistic falsehoods. That is, to assault the president with everything last smear at their disposal and thereby to try to turn the midterms into a referendum on the president and his record, as they define it and according to their own right-wing narrative, hoping with low voter turnout dominated by low-information voters they might just turn the tables on their nemesis.

That's really all this is: politics. It isn't a sign that Congress is in any way more sensible now than it was before, and it certainly isn't a sign that the Republican Party is in any way saner. As Frank Rich writes, Republicans remain "a hard-right party that will be happy to once again hold the government hostage to its demands if it gains a Senate majority to go with its House majority in November's midterms," while "yesterday's vote on the debt-limit will be remembered, if at all, as a fleeting pause in the Republican right's Obama-era surge." That sounds about right.

Republicans threaten economic armageddon. Again. Because they're Republicans.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Republicans are at it again, threatening to refuse to agree to a debt ceiling increase, and therefore threatening economic catastrophe for the country (and globally), if they don't get what they want. They're not sure what they want, or rather what the ransom will be, they just know they're going to take hostages again. Here's how Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (in part sucking up to teabagging wingnuts for political self-interest) put it today on Fox News:

CHRIS WALLACE: So are you saying right here, "We are going to attach something to the debt ceiling"? And if so, what?

MCCONNELL: What I'm saying is we ought to attach something significant for the country to [President Obama's] request to increase the debt ceiling. That's been the pattern for 50 years, going back to the Eisenhower administration. I think it's the responsible thing to do for the country.

[...]

We're never going to default — the Speaker and I have made that clear. We've never done that. But, it's irresponsible not to use the discussion — the request of the President to raise the debt ceiling — to try to accomplish something for the country.

Talk about a ridiculous threat. We're not going to default, but we'll threaten to allow the country to go into default if we don't get what we want? Yeah, sure. There's no way the Republican Party's business backers will ever go along with default, so there's no way McConnell and John Boehner and the rest of the business-oriented leadership will let that happen. Which basically makes this an empty threat, and President Obama and the Democrats should treat it as such.

Otherwise, how is it "responsible" to threaten default? Actually, it's the exact opposite. Furthermore, holding the country hostage and trying to extract concessions from the party holding the White House hasn't been the "pattern" since Eisenhower, it's part of the new anti-Obama Republican obstructionism of which McConnell himself has been one of the most vocal champions.

Basically, the Republicans don't want to give Obama (or, presumably, any Democratic president, but it's worse with Obama given the rabid intensity of the anti-Obama right) anything that could be seen as a victory, and so they've basically turned themselves into the disloyal opposition that is apparently willing to do any amount of harm to the country to score political points.

Republicans may wrap themselves in patriotic rhetoric and symbolism, but their actions show their commitment to party and (extremist right-wing) ideology far more than country. This is just more of the same, as pathetic, and yet as dangerous, as ever.

Uncivil war: Tea Party radicalism and the deepening divide in the Republican Party

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You gotta love it when the Tea Party, a movement largely co-opted by an increasingly extremist Republican Party (as it was largely a creation of opportunistic right-wing Republican interests), comes out and calls Republicans traitors for not being extremist enough and for daring to work with Democrats to address the country's problems, subjecting them to primary challenges from the even further right and otherwise driving the wedge deeper into the party's disease-ridden carcass:

A tea party group has launched a campaign to support primary challenges against all 87 Republicans who voted for the deal in late October to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling. 

The Tea Party Leadership Fund, a PAC affiliated with the group TheTeaParty.net, began a fundraising push — dubbed the "Primaries for Traitors Fund" — shortly after the shutdown deal passed in the House, and they are now ramping up efforts to find "credible candidates" in each of the districts, said the fund's treasurer, Dan Backer.

"From our perspective, we see this as a signature vote. You can't be a conservative and vote to raise the debt ceiling," Backer said. "I recognize there are some places where voters may actually think that was the right vote. And there may be places where you have an incumbent who wins with 90% of the vote every time and there's not a credible challenger. I recognize that, but we're certainly going to do our best."

Backer says the group has honed in on a few specific members to start: Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, New York Rep. Peter King, North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger, Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany, and most importantly, Backer said, House Speaker John Boehner in Ohio. 

Of course, even Ronald Reagan, like every Republican president, supported debt ceiling raises, but, oh, no matter. These are crazed ideologues long divorced from reality.

And for Republicans like Boehner and so many others, this is what is called making your bed and having to lie in it. Or playing with fire. Or being hoisted with your own petard. Or getting bitten in the ass.

Not that I think it's a great thing that this is what American conservatism has come to -- it's awfully dangerous, given that this is one of the country's two main political parties -- but this is one of those times when you may want to grab some popcorn and settle in for what is sure to be an entertaining ride.

The Republican Party is destroying America

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It's pretty much as simple as that:

With the federal government on the brink of a default, a House Republican effort to end the shutdown and extend the Treasury's borrowing authority collapsed Tuesday night as a major credit agency warned that the United States was on the verge of a costly ratings downgrade.

After the failure of the House Republican leadership to find enough support for its latest proposal to end the fiscal crisis, the Senate's Democratic and Republican leaders immediately restarted negotiations to find a bipartisan path forward. A spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said Mr. Reid was "optimistic that an agreement is within reach" with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

With so little time left, chances rose that a resolution would not be approved by Congress and sent to President Obama before Thursday, when the government is left with only its cash on hand to pay the nation’s bills.

"It's very, very serious," warned Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. "Republicans have to understand we have lost this battle, as I predicted weeks ago, that we would not be able to win because we were demanding something that was not achievable."

A day that was supposed to bring Washington to the edge of resolving the fiscal showdown instead seemed to bring chaos and retrenching.

McCain, pragmatism renewed, is right. But the problem runs deeper than he imagines. His party has embraced an extremist, anti-American right-wing ideology and policy agenda that is simultaneously nihilistic and absolutist. The pragmatists are recoiling, but they've been playing along for years now, and now it's coming back to bite them. (Consider how McConnell is one of the key players trying to get a deal done. This is a guy who made it his mission, and his party's mission, to obstruct Obama at every turn, to paralyze the government with its disloyal opposition.)

And it's so bad that the relatively sensible House leadership can't even control its own caucus, to the point that John Boehner's speakership is simply a joke.

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Senate close to deal ending the shutdown, raising the debt ceiling, and further enabling Republican extremism and obstructionism

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Politico:

Senate leaders are closing in on a deal to reopen the government and extend the U.S. debt ceiling until next year, marking a major breakthrough in an impasse that has paralyzed Washington and struck fears across the globe.

In a furious round of last-ditch negotiations, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell were discussing a proposal to reopen the government until Jan. 15 and extend the national debt limit until Feb. 7. The plan would also set up bicameral budget negotiations over major deficit issues, that are to conclude by Dec. 13.

Now, there's hardly any guarantee this would get through John Boehner's House. There's some cover here in forcing Democrats to negotiate, which is usually done on mostly Republican terms, but would the extremist Tea Party minority of Republicans in the House, goaded on by the likes of Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin, really agree to anything without major concessions like Obamacare defunding and/or, oh, I don't know, the immediate obliteration of Social Security? (There would have to be concessions on both sides in any deal, and the ones reportedly in this one are relatively minor.)

But let's assume this deal were to go through? Is it a good one?

Well, it could be worse. Apparently Democrats have rejected McConnell's proposal to prevent the Treasury Department by law from using "extraordinary measures" to deal with the debt ceiling and prevent the country from going into default. (When you're dealing with Republicans, you just can't agree to this. Given Republicans' dysfunctional extremism and rabid partisan obstructionism, you have to have recourse to such measures.)

My initial reaction, though, is that it's a bad deal. Republicans hold the country hostage, shut down the government, threaten economic catastrophe, and see their approval ratings collapse with most of the country blaming them for the shutdown, and what they get is more time to keep doing what they're doing and the opportunity to shift the focus to bipartisan negotiations where they're more likely to be able to control the narrative and redirect the blame for this whole mess onto Democrats?

Yes, this seems like capitulation on the Democrats' part.

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Louie Gohmert still the stupidest member of the House of Representatives

By Michael J.W. Stickings

"Ass backwards" is one way to describe Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert. Not to be too crass, but you have to wonder if when he goes to the toilet he sticks his mouth deep in the bowl because he thinks that's where you defecate from.

And so you knew you could count on him to get the debt ceiling, like everything else, completely wrong: 

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) isn't sure whether he'll support a debt limit deal, but he is sure of one thing: a debt default would be President Barack Obama's fault.

A reporter for The Young Turks asked Gohmert whether he'd support a bill that would raise the debt ceiling at the Values Voter Summit on Friday.

"The word 'deal' concerns me," he said. "If it's good for America."

When asked whether he would allow the government to default on its debt, Gohmert projected the responsibility for such circumstances onto Obama.

"No," he said, "that would be an impeachable offense by the president."

What's amazing is that Gohmert actually seems to believe his own moronic bullshit. Republicans often say stupid things, but for many of them it's just the usual cynical partisan nonsense. They say down is up even though they know that down is down. But Gohmert and those like him -- and he's hardly alone -- really do seem to think that down is up.

In this case, last time I checked President Obama actually does want to raise the debt ceiling so that the country doesn't go into default. All Democrats do. It's a significant number of Republicans who are playing politics with the debt ceiling, either opposing an increase for right-wing ideological reasons (and disregarding the near-certainty of a subsequent economic catastrophe) or opposing it rhetorically (and holding the country hostage) so as to try to extract concessions from the Democrats in other areas.

Apparently Gohmert is too stupid to understand this.

An impeachable offense? Seriously? What a fucking moron.

Though he faces incredibly (and increasingly) stiff competition from any number of his fellow Republicans, he wins this award running away.

Lindsey Graham is "very dangerous"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

John McCain's little sidekick is pissed off:

Sen. Lindsey Graham is angry. He’s frustrated. He's upset. In his own words, he's "very dangerous."

With the government shutdown now in its 12th day, and a possible U.S. debt default looming on Oct. 17, the veteran Republican was in the mood to lash out at everyone Saturday. President Barack Obama, House Republicans, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans — they were all the target of Graham’s ire.

"The president is a pathetic leader. He's only engaged in the last couple of days," Graham said after the Senate blocked action on a Democratic plan for a "clean" debt-ceiling increase through 2014. "Every time you get close to getting a deal over here with our Democratic friends, they move the ball because some poll comes out. Our friends in the House apparently can’t muster the votes to send something over here to open up the government. So it's dysfunction at every level."

But the 58-year-old Graham wasn't through venting yet. "You can blame us [Republicans], we've overplayed our hand, that's for damn sure," Graham said. "But their response, where the president and [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] basically shutting everybody out, and when you try to negotiate, they keep changing the terms of the deal... it's very frustrating."

"This is a very frustrated Lindsey Graham," he added. "Which is a very dangerous thing."

With all due respect, Senator Graham, which admittedly isn't very much, go stick a fist up your self-righteous ass.

It's your pathetic party that's doing this, holding the country hostage over its extremist right-wing agenda, threatening global economic catastrophe over the debt ceiling, shutting down the government because you and your fellow Republicans refuse to accept the results of democratic elections that don't go in your favor, because an insanely irrational hatred of Obamacare has taken hold of your insanely irrational party.

And you're a huge part of the problem, sucking up to the far right because you fear a primary challenge, engaging the Tea Party when it can boost your and your party's electoral fortunes, putting your own ideological and partisan priorities ahead of the country whenever it suits you.

Like I said, go fuck yourself.

President Obama and the Democrats are fully within their right not to negotiate with terrorists.

GOP craziness may end crisis

By Frank Moraes 

Jonathan Chait wrote what I think is a very insightful article today, even if the title is a bit deceptive, "House Republicans' Ransom Demands Falling." What I would say is that their demands are changing, not falling. He provides some important history about the current standoff. The House Republican leadership (John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Paul Ryan) have been planning this blackmail scheme, most likely since Romney lost the last election. The idea was to use the Debt Ceiling to force Obama to accept the usual Republican budget policies. You know: cut tax rates (supposedly without cutting overall taxes, but you know how that goes), cut entitlements, and so on.

Unfortunately, Ted Cruz ruined their plan by getting all the Republicans to support a government shutdown threat to somehow end Obamacare. This was the real reason that Boehner was promising his caucus a fight on the Debt Ceiling and why he tried to get the continuing resolution (CR) out of the way. Most observers (including me!) thought it was just Boehner's usual short term planning: get the CR out of the way and then deal with the Debt Limit. But that doesn't seem to be the case. I was right about one thing, though: all the supposed reasonable Republicans don't exist. Boehner is just as extreme as all the rest; he may just be a little more tactical.

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Michael Kinsley is an idiot, appeasing the Republicans would be a disaster

By Michael J.W. Stickings

One-time liberal wunderkind Michael Kinsley hasn't been worth reading in, like, forever. But yesterday at the New Republic, which also used to be worth reading, he really outdid himself with his inanity.

I only know this because his stupid piece has been making the rounds. Yes, it is so inane that Kinsley is finally worth talking about again, if only to wonder at the enormity of his inanity.

In brief, Kinsley argues that President Obama should give in. It's not that he, a liberal, sides with the Republicans over the shutdown and debt ceiling, just that the president should do what he has to do for the good of the country.

He says the president should "speak to the nation" and tell Americans, while pinning the blame for this whole mess on the Republicans, that he'll agree to a one-year postponement of Obamacare in return for a debt ceiling increase that would last a year and of course for the government to reopen.

Yes, forget the polls showing how the shutdown is hurting the Republicans, and forget the fact that Republicans are already caving, desperately looking for a way out. Kinsley wants the president to reward the Republicans for their far-right-wing ideological extremism, hyper-partisanship, Tea Party fervor, and hostage-taking ways by giving them what they want. (Because, of course, the only way to ensure peace in Europe was to give you-know-who what he wanted.)

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Willful ignorance

By Mustang Bobby

George F. Will has the remarkable ability to say something really stupid but coat it with a layer of intellectualism. For example, this interview yesterday morning on NPR.

In an interview with NPR’s “Morning Edition,” host Steve Inskeep asked Will about President Barack Obama’s argument that Republicans are short-circuiting the system by using government funding and the debt ceiling as leverage to dismantle Obamacare, rather than repealing the law outright.

“How does this short-circuit the system?” Will said. “I hear Democrats say, ‘The Affordable Care Act is the law,’ as though we’re supposed to genuflect at that sunburst of insight and move on. Well, the Fugitive Slave Act was the law, separate but equal was the law, lots of things are the law and then we change them.”

Yes, we did change the law… through the legislative or judicial process, not by holding the government hostage with threats of financial ruin. That’s short-circuiting the system.

There have been ample opportunities to dismantle Obamacare. The House has tried more than forty times, but the bills they pass don’t go anywhere because that’s how the system works. The Supreme Court weighed in and left it largely intact. There was a presidential election where one candidate said he would repeal the law on his first day in office — thereby revealing that he didn’t understand the system, either. None of it worked, so yes, that’s the law and it’s still the law.

We’re not genuflecting at the sunburst of insight of Obamacare; we’re honoring the system of laws and procedure that we’ve had in place for over two hundred years. (By the way, I’m sure it was entirely unintentional that Mr. Will cited two laws that impacted African-Americans when talking about repealing a law that is the hallmark of the country’s first African-American president. Right.)

(Cross-posted at Bark Bark Woof Woof.)

Losing badly, Republicans look desperately for a way out of their self-made political crisis

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Gotta love these headlines and what they, and the articles below them, say about the current state of the Republican Party:

-- New York Times: "As Pressure Mounts, House G.O.P. Weighs Short-Term Debt Deal";

-- The Hill: "House GOP 'negotiators' to meet Obama";

-- Washington Post: "Key Republicans signal willingness to back down on effort to defund health-care law"; 

-- Politico: "GOP quietly backing away from Obamacare"; and

-- Politico: "GOP unity frays, frustration builds."

And the divisions on the right, among conservatives and key Republican stakeholders, are only deepening. Consider, for example, John Podhoretz's piece, "Suicide of the Right." (Forget that Republicans across the board are responsible for the rise of the Tea Party and the GOP's ongoing move to the ever further right.) Consider also these:

-- NBC News: "Kochs to Congress: Focus on spending, not Obamacare"; and

-- Huffington Post: "Heritage Action Bails On Debt Ceiling Fight." 

Even Paul Ryan is caving, distancing himself from the Obamacare defunding nonsense and, while obviously remaining unabashedly partisan and self-promotional, advocating (Republican-friendly) compromise that is rather more conciliatory than anything we've seen from him before.

Republicans obviously still think they can get out of this with some of their demands met, and thus far there's no indication they're genuinely willing to negotiate in good faith.

But the simple fact is that the government shutdown, with the fight over the debt ceiling coming up next, has been an utter disaster for them.

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Calling bullshit on the Republicans' desperate supercommittee ploy

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Republicans have backed themselves into a corner. They've allowed a teabagging minority of their own party to shut down the government, they're toying with global economic catastrophe by threatening to vote against a debt ceiling increase, and, in general, their petulant-child approach to fiscal policy amounts to nothing more than hostage-taking. And the polls are clear: The American people are correctly blaming them for causing the current crisis.

So what do they do? Allow a majority in the House to prevail with a vote on a "clean" continuing resolution to reopen the government? Nope. Rein in their bluster and agree that the debt ceiling isn't something to use as a political weapon? Hardly. Accept that Obamacare is the law of the land and stop trying to kill it by any means possible? Yeah, right. Say enough is enough to Ted Cruz and his teabagging radicals? Of course not.

No, they posture, grandstand, and attempt, with one last-ditch effort, to turn the tables on President Obama and the Democrats:

House Republicans will bring to the floor a bill to create a bipartisan, bicameral committee to address the current fiscal impasse that has shut down much of the government and threatens a debt default.

A GOP leadership aide said the committee wouldn't just handle the continuing resolution needed to fund the government. It would have broader jurisdiction similar to the 2011 Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the supercommittee, and would cover the debt limit and other fiscal issues.

A GOP appropriations aide also described the working group as similar to the supercommittee, but on a smaller scale, and without instructions.

"I want to have a conversation," said Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. "I'm not drawing lines in the sand. I'm requesting to sit down to resolve our differences."

Boehner said, "There's no boundaries here. There's nothing on the table, there's nothing off the table. I'm trying to do everything I can to bring people together and have a conversation."

What complete and utter bullshit.

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Behind the Ad: Stand up to the Tea Party

By Richard K. Barry

(Another installment in our extensive "Behind the Ad" series.) 

Who: Organizing for Action

Where: Nationally on cable news programs.

What's going on: Organizing for America is President Obama's former campaign arm.

MSNBC:

Charging that "Tea Party Republicans are threatening an economic shutdown," the ad says that "refusing to pay our nation's bill" would "endanger American jobs" if the country defaults. "Tell them to stand up to the Tea Party," says the ad's narrator. "Enough already."

Presumably the "them" are more reasonable Republicans, whoever they might be.

Giving John and Jane Q. Public the keys

By Richard K. Barry

If you ever needed proof that direct democracy would not be a great idea, consider the recent Fox News poll that found 58 percent would not vote to raise the debt ceiling. 

Most Republicans (78 percent) and a majority of independents (57 percent) would vote against raising the limit. So would almost all Tea Partiers (88 percent).

Government by plebiscite. That'll work. 

You cannot reason with these people

By Mustang Bobby

The shutdown and the debt ceiling have always been about more than just the budget and spending, and just about everyone who has been watching this knows that. It’s about one party re-fighting every election they lost: about the Republicans unable to accept the fact that other people from other parties get to live in the White House, and that they don’t always get their way. And even if they don’t win, they have to exert the most pain they can on the people they lost to and never mind any collateral damage. It’s all or nothing, and “nothing” is not an option.

Which is why it doesn’t surprise me to hear Republicans talking about winning at all costs, even if they don’t know what they want. It’s a matter of pride and honor on the level of samurais inShogun; the slightest lack of due deference is punishable by death.

It’s not about the money. It never has been. The budget and the debt ceiling are the hostages here, the innocent bystanders who just happen to walk into the hold-up at the time the robbers pulled their guns and started shooting into the ceiling. That’s why you have Tea Partiers telling us that we can get along just fine with the government shut down and defaulting on our debt payments is actually a good thing.

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Feds can't prioritize—and shouldn't!

By Frank Moraes

On Friday, I wrote about something that is really bugging me, Debt Ceiling Crisis Options. I hate the idea that is being pushed by many conservatives that the Debt Ceiling is no big deal. On Bloomberg TV, John Boehner said, "Those who have loaned us money, like in any other proceeding, if you will—the bondholders usually get paid first." What he means is that the United States government has a greater obligation to bond holders than it does to Social Security Recipients.

What I find so vexing about this is that there is a very casual class war going on here, "Of course the rich must be paid first!" I just don't see any difference between the bond holders and the Social Security recipients. Both groups paid the government money in the past in exchange for returns now. It is true that if we are late, bond holders may well think twice before they loan money to the government again. But isn't it also true that people will be less inclined to pay payroll taxes for a benefit they may or more not receive? (I have thought about this a lot. Those who would cut Social Security never seem to think that support for the highly regressive payroll tax is dependent upon a decent return.)

NPR had a very good segment on this tonight, In A Debt Crisis, US May Have To Decide Payment Priorities. It quoted Boehner, of course. But the meat of the piece was a interview with Mark Patterson who was the chief of staff at the US Treasury from 2009 until this May (now at the Center for American Progress). He said that if you asked any recent Treasury Secretary of either party they would tell you this idea of prioritizing the bond payments is "a god-awful idea." He also provided an excellent analogy:

I liken it to a household. If you are a homeowner and you decided to pay only your mortgage payment, but you stopped paying your utility bill, your credit card bill, your student loan bill and your car payment, your credit rating would go down the tubes even though your mortgage was still current.

What this is really all about is more cover for John Boehner and the Republicans. He wants to crash the economy and then stand back and say, "Well, if you did what I said, everything would be fine! Don't blame me." But it is still a good talking point. I'm sure the Fox News viewers will just love up—right up to the time when their Social Security checks stop coming.

And Patterson goes further. He notes that the Treasury's system is not designed to do what too many Americans do each month: figure out how much of each of its bills it will pay. The system is designed to pay all of its bills in full all the time. So even if Obama agreed with Boehner that the bond holders are ever so much more important than our retired citizens (and I'm very much afraid that he does), we proably couldn't manage it. If this continues on, it will be a clusterfuck.

(Cross-posted at Frankly Curious.)

Debt ceiling crisis options

By Frank Moraes

Yesterday, Adam Liptak wrote an interesting article in theNew York Times, Experts See Potential Ways Out for Obama in Debt Ceiling Maze. It discusses three ideas—two of which you have probably heard before. And the one new one is kind of dumb. Still, I think it is important to discuss them.

But before getting to the specifics, I should note: the White House could not be any clearer that none of these ideas is valid. And I think we should believe them. There are two sides to this. One the front side, they have to say that to put pressure on Congress to use normal order to raise the Debt Ceiling. But on the back side, I'm sure that Obama is concerned that if he does anything that is considered even slightly shady from a Constitutional perspective, the House would almost certainly vote to impeach him. Just the same, I think this is typical cowardly Obama, because the Senate would never have the votes to convict. What's more, the Republicans would end up looking really bad, impeaching two consecutive Democratic presidents over trivial issues that they more or less created. But I think that Obama might change his tune if we are on the verge of default.

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Reality is not your friend, Republicans

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Salon:

After struggling for weeks and weeks in stages one through four, Republicans are finally entering the final stage of grief over the death of their belief that President Obama would begin offering concessions in exchange for an increase in the debt limit.

The catalyzing event appears to have been an hour-plus-long meeting between Obama and congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday. Senior administration officials say that if the meeting accomplished only one thing it was to convey to Republican leaders the extent of Obama's determination not to negotiate with them over the budget until after they fund the government and increase the debt limit. These officials say his will here is stronger than at any time since he decided to press ahead with healthcare reform after Scott Brown ended the Democrats' Senate supermajority in 2010.

There's evidence that it sunk in.

Yes, and this is why we're now hearing more nonsense about a Grand Bargain, as the Republican leadership is desperate to come away from this self-created disaster with something, anything with which to claim even just a trace of victory.

The only thing that might change Obama's position is if Boehner decided to sprint into his waiting arms, burning his bridges to House conservatives behind him. If Boehner wanted to finish the budget deal he almost reached with Obama late last year, revenue and all, then throw in a debt limit increase, and a budget for the government, Obama wouldn't freeze him out. But it doesn't sound like that's what Boehner has in mind.

And Republicans wouldn't allow it anyway. Boehner is fucked, you see, and so is his wretched party, as long as the president stands firm.

Republican arsonists

By Michael J.W. Stickings

You've heard, perhaps, that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Well:

President Obama on Friday implored House Republicans to fund the government, criticizing them for threatening "to burn the house down simply because you haven't gotten 100 percent of your way."

In comments from the White House press briefing room, Obama reiterated he would not negotiate on the debt ceiling or relent to GOP demands to delay or defund his healthcare law in exchange for funding the government. 

"My message to Congress is this: Do not shut down the government. Do not shut down the economy. Pass a budget on time. Pay our bills on time," Obama said.

Easier said than done when you're dealing with the right-wing extremists who control the Republican Party.

Internal divisions are bad enough. What the hell are you supposed to do when one of its two main occupants wants to burn down the whole fucking thing?

Ted Cruz and the new face of the Republican Party

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Le Parti Républicain, c'est moi.

If you've been following the Obamacare-debt ceiling-government shutdown drama playing out in Washington, you'll know, unless you've got your head up your ass like most Republicans, that it's pretty much a lose-lose-lose situation for the GOP.

Republicans will apparently do anything and everything to try to stop Obamacare -- they object to it on radical-right ideological grounds but also, less explicitly, because they know, or at least the smart ones do, that it will be a boon to Democrats at the polls for years to come -- and that means working aggressively to defund it by threatening a) to shut down the government or b) to block an increase to the debt ceiling. (Yes, they will risk immense hardship and even global economic armageddon to get what they want.)

The problem, for them, is that shutting down the government would be extremely unpopular (they would be hit with the blame for it, as they were in the '90s), while the markets and their own business base would react negatively, to say the least, were the country to find itself unable to pay off its debts. Republican establishmentarians like John Boehner know this and would like to rein in the extremists, but the extremists aren't that easily pacified, not least because the establishmentarians are responsible to a great extent for empowering them -- it's called reaping what you've sown. The establishment was more than happy to align itself with the teabaggers and others on the far right when it meant getting votes, but now it's stuck with a hugely powerful and, within the party, hugely popular base to which it must continue to pay its respects.

In any event, there's really no way out of this mess. Republicans have resorted to hostage-taking in the hopes that President Obama would cave, as he has before, but he stresses that he won't play that game this time around. And, really, he has all the leverage -- he just needs to remain firm. Whether it's a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government running or an increase to the debt ceiling, he'll get what he wants because ultimately Republicans will have to give in to avoid the wrath of the voters at the polls next year. In other words, it's give up the effort to defund Obamacare or commit electoral suicide. (Actually, though, there's no guarantee they'll act rationally and give in. Many of them seem prepared to fight to the bitter end.)

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