The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone

The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has proposed creating an escape hatch for Congressional Republicans, who have put themselves in a box by threatening not to raise the national debt limit if Democrats don't agree to trillions of dollars in cuts to popular social programs.

The plan is designed to give President Obama the power to raise the debt limit on his own through the end of his first term, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit in the months leading up to the election. This would stave off the threat of defaulting on national obligations, but keep the charged issues of debt and spending at the center of political debate for months

Link to story

Well there we have it folks. If anyone was even slightly under the illusion that Republicans gave a flip about the Tea Party movement, this should thoroughly shatter those fantasies.

Mitch McConnell just gave an out to his fellow Republicans who have cornered themselves by continuing to pander to the Conservative base. While pandering to the Tea Parties might make for good sound bytes, it's Wall Street who pays for your "populist" conservatives to get elected, and those are their ultimate bosses.

So instead of a $4 trillion deficit reduction deal offered by Obama or the much smaller $2 trillion Cantor wants (he is still trying to find what to cut - go figure the Democrat was more concerned about deficits than the Republican), Republicans are going to give Obama carte blanche to do what he wants with the debt so they can keep feeding their base meaningless votes.

Think the House won't go along with it? Boehner is already hedging:

The Speaker shares the Leader's frustration. Republicans are unified in our commitment to ensuring that the debt limit is not used as leverage to saddle small businesses with increased taxes that destroy jobs.

Source

And this morning Boehner setting the stage for this to pass:

"Where's the President's plan?" asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) at a press stakeout after a GOP caucus meeting. "When's he going to lay his cards on the table? This debt limit increase is his problem."

Source

All they really need to pass this in the House are the Democratic caucus and 25 Republicans who sit in moderate districts. Think it can't happen?

Increasingly I am feeling myself siding with those who believe the debt ceiling absolutely has to be raised. Why? Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on me what a true default would entail and I do not believe it is something we should have to suffer through. Even with that said though we need large spending cuts, the $4 trillion deal seemed great to me, but the Republicans gave that one up because it closes tax loopholes!

Regardless of political orientation though, there is no way I can support this policy proposal. The executive has already assumed far too much authority over these past decades it does not need any more. This goes for a President of any political affiliation. It has always been and must always be the authority of Congress to decide our financial matters.

It doesn't seem that Obama will cave. Maybe he has a very good backing. Perhaps the repubs realize this, I predict the repubs will surrender. Just my opinion of course

reply to post by Avenginggecko


If Obama is smart, he'll give this proposal a resounding rejection and drop the ball back in the repub's court and then come out and say simply: "Look what has happened. The party of fiscal responsibility has refused to even legitimately enter negotiations regardless how many trillions we have volunteered to cut from our own party's programs, and has now floated the idea of divorcing themselves from the issue so as to not have to take any responsibility for our citizens and the governing of our nation. In times of great struggle, true leaders are made evident. However, this buck-passing by the right has done nothing to counteract our current deficit problems, so the Democrats, with an open invitation to any Republicans still willing to participate, will draft comprehensive budget reform with the expectation that all Republicans, as a matter of formality, will provide a 'Yes' vote, since they have given the executive branch the authority to make this decision." And then just walk away and watch the right's voter base EXPLODE. This could be the end of the Tea Party-infiltrated GOP as it stands today, and good riddance for it.

reply to post by samcrow


No, Obama's going to say:

"Well folks, we are making progress. The GOP is finally giving us the keys to the car and begging us to drive.

They have finally realized that we cannot continue the failed policies of George Bush.

They have finally decided to eat their peas."

And it will be a bloodbath for the GOP in 2012, as the TPM soundly punishes them for welching on their promises of fiscal conservatism. They deserve it.

On the horizon....the birth of a third party.

reply to post by mishigas


The TPM's fatal mistake was trusting the party of GWB with their platform. It was folly to think that the faux fiscal hawk neo conservatives would ever really give the TPM what they wanted. If they did, Ron Paul wouldn't be a joke.

reply to post by samcrow


Completely agree. Obama should reject this out of hand. How in the world after all this political posturing they can come back and propose something like this?. For the first time in recent government history a President is willing to tackle the growing deficit problem of this country and all he is asking is for some concession in revenues and the republican balk at his proposal.

I think the republican did themselves a disservice for associating themselves with the Tea Party. Boehner has become a puppet of Cantor and has completely bullied him and made him look an incompetent moron during this process. The bottomline is that when you come to the bargaining table everything should be negotiable, and to Boehner credit he did consider so increase in revenue but the Tea Partiers that the repubs have decided to court now have them in a tough spot.

This republican party has a crisis identity now, they don't know who they belong to, big business , tea party, elderly people who tend to vote republican but are highly dependent of social security,Medicare Medicaid and this proposal shows that. This proposal pleases big business because it won't cut spending and won't raise taxes or close loopholes, pleases their senior base because entitlement won't be touched and they can go back and pin Obama as the big spender and that would certainly riled up their tea party voters.

instead of getting serious about deficit reduction they rather play politics so they can win in 2012.

Lest there be any doubt the Republicans are insincere hypocrits and complete cowards. Any who support this should resign since it makes clear they are not willing to make a decision. Amazing. Even a president wholly incapable of negotiating his way out of a wet paper bag gets handed such a gimme. Unbelieveable.

We so need a third party whose first and main platform is complete and forever refusal of ALL corporate money, no matter how it tries to sneak through. Fill it up with fiscal conservatives and social moderates. Promise to end the phony war on drugs, the war on terror and revoke the Patriot Act and disband the TSA. This would allow them to become the majority party within 2 presidential cycles, maybe one. Call it the "America First" party.

reply to post by Avenginggecko



You gotta be f'ing kidding me. No one is looking out for our nation or it's citizens. Neither party gives a rat's ass about anything other than posturing for the next election. This is just one more feather in the dictatorship cap to which the presidency is headed.....started by Wilson, continued by many following presidents and Bush as well, and accelerated by the current administration. Our republic is dead folks.

reply to post by Avenginggecko

reply to post by mishigas


The TPM's fatal mistake was trusting the party of GWB with their platform. It was folly to think that the faux fiscal hawk neo conservatives would ever really give the TPM what they wanted. If they did, Ron Paul wouldn't be a joke.

No, they did not embrace the entire GOP. They supported conservatives and those who believed in smaller govt. They actually supported a few Democrats. Obviously they made a few mistakes, but they will correct them.

The "tea party" is just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans and Democrats.

The fact of the matter is that politics is broken. Voting is broken. Elections are broken.

There are very real, very effective solutions possible. However almost all of them involve a system crash and a re-start from the bottom.

If the Republicans go along with this, they will have destroyed the one best weapon they had to win the WH in 2012: the economy.

They have effectively said "Obama, you win. Raise the debt limit, raise taxes, forget about meaningful cuts in spending".

The argument over the economy will disappear like morning mist over the desert..

reply to post by silent thunder

The "tea party" is just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans and Democrats.

How? Because they want to hold the cowards feet to the fire to cut spending, no on the debt ceiling, and lower taxes?

Yeah, those are all bad things, eh?:shk:

Mitch McConnell embarrassed me and my entire state.

Disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful.

reply to post by mishigas


Just to correct...the McConnell plan would not allow for tax increases, is just basically keeping the status quo we have right now and kicks the can down the road. Is just a political ploy to please all their bases and set the theme for the 2012 elections.

So it just shows that republican party is more concern on playing politics than in deficit reduction, they have a deal for 4 trillion in cuts on the table and they balked at it, because it wont please their tea party base, now with the joke of a plan they further their agenda pleasing their senior base and big business while they can go back to their tea party voters and said : "Obama made me do it, we need to get him out of office"... This party has lost their identity and has become a joke.

Originally posted by mishigas
reply to post by silent thunder

 

The "tea party" is just as much a part of the problem as the Republicans and Democrats.

How? Because they want to hold the cowards feet to the fire to cut spending, no on the debt ceiling, and lower taxes?

Yeah, those are all bad things, eh?:shk:

They won't do anything, they will break all their promises like all politicans. Or they will do some cosmetic garbage that looks like it's doing one thing but really serves to shovel more money and power to the usual too-big-to-fail suspects.

The entire system is broken. I have some very good and effective ideas about how to fix it, drawn from history. Unfortunately we are not allowed to talk about them, due to the T&C.

reply to post by Bunch


Kicking the can down the road is a major part of the situation we are in right now.

Far too many politicians have been willing to play that game.

lol, talk about giving him just enough rope to hang himself....lol

he's too smart for that

reply to post by mishigas


The problem with the tea party as with any young political movement is that ideology clouds reality. The reality is that we can not solve the countries debt problems just by cutting spending alone. Economist from both sides realize that. The Tea Party is a much need it breath of fresh air in this country politics and I welcome some of their ideas specially as fiscal conservatives. But they need to prioritize their goals, they can't expect to come to the scene and fix what has been broken in 30 years in 1 year, it's just not attainable.

Right now they have a deal on the table for 4 trillion in spending cuts, 4 TRILLIONS!!! Do you think if the tea party had not broken into the scene this deal would be on the table?!!! Heck NO!

But their anti-tax stance is hindering them from causing the change that they themselves came to fix. You can't fix all the problems at once. You got to pick your battles, win the battle for spending today, take the credit that they will certainly deserve and live to fight the next battle which is going to be tax reform.

The Tea Party needs to prioritize their goals, compromising doesn't mean defeat, specially when you are the clear winner of the deal in place.

reply to post by Bunch

The problem with the tea party as with any young political movement is that ideology clouds reality. The reality is that we can not solve the countries debt problems just by cutting spending alone. Economist from both sides realize that. The Tea Party is a much need it breath of fresh air in this country politics and I welcome some of their ideas specially as fiscal conservatives. But they need to prioritize their goals, they can't expect to come to the scene and fix what has been broken in 30 years in 1 year, it's just not attainable.

I don't see it as an ideology problem. It's no more ideological than Ron Paul's stances, and he's been re-elected, what, 28 times?

Right now they have a deal on the table for 4 trillion in spending cuts, 4 TRILLIONS!!! Do you think if the tea party had not broken into the scene this deal would be on the table?!!! Heck NO!

And that deal has already been pared down to $2.4 trillion.

But their anti-tax stance is hindering them from causing the change that they themselves came to fix. You can't fix all the problems at once. You got to pick your battles, win the battle for spending today, take the credit that they will certainly deserve and live to fight the next battle which is going to be tax reform.

You have got to be kidding. Unemployment is at 9.2% The govt increases in size and cost year after year after year. They are playing with an imaginary "debt ceiling". What's the point of having a debt ceiling if it is never adhered to? Why keep pretending it is some kind of control.

And in the face of all this, you want to continue feeding the behemoth with additional taxes?

The Tea Party needs to prioritize their goals, compromising doesn't mean defeat, specially when you are the clear winner of the deal in place.

Their goals are clear: smaller govt. less spending, lower taxes, the Constitution.