Republicans claim that they should be rewarded for conceding that the debt limit should be raised at all, because their ideal policy outcome involves not raising it, end of story -- and that there's enough money coming in to cover the essentials, defined as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, salaries for the military, and then debt service to avoid a default. The problem? This is nuts; it would mean that the entire remainder of the federal government would shut down. Liberals have been making the point for weeks, but so have plenty of responsible people from every spot on the ideological spectrum, and I think Megan McArdle today has the best list yet of some of the specific effects. Highly recommended.
Remember, there's a big difference between opposing an increase in the debt limit unless certain negotiable conditions are met (perhaps irresponsible, but hardly unprecedented), and a claim that the debt limit should nevernevernever be increased and that no harm would come of keeping it where it is for good.
(Via Drum, who also has a good post on Michele Bachmann, the leader of the nevernevernever caucus).
Oh, and -- nice catch!
In a nutshell, the GOP's self-described concession is not crashing the economy on purpose. Why is this not controversial? Why are the Democrats not explaining this in simple terms to the country? Especially since they have all this Ronald Reagan evidence to back them on GOP insanity? And there is more evidence GOP policies created the debt more than anything? And since Democrats are showing good faith efforts on debt reduction even without hostages AND their ideas for debt reduction are much more popular with country than those of the Republicans? How is GOP approval not 12% right now?
ReplyDeleteHow is GOP approval not 12% right now?
ReplyDeleteTeam spirit. They're good for 40% of the vote under any conceivable circumstances. Some years they can get another 11-12-13%, some years not.
People keep going to Mets games....