It appears many bluffs are being called today. Matt Yglesias writes,
Something you often see in negotiations is a mismatch between one side’s stated sticking points and its real sticking points. In the debate over the debt ceiling, for example, Republicans have sought to portray themselves as having two bottom lines. One is that any increase in the debt ceiling must be met dollar-for-dollar with spending cuts. The other is that no revenue increases can be part of the deal. What Harry Reid did yesterday was essentially call the GOP’s bluff by outlining a plan that raises the debt ceiling by $2.7 trillion and includes $2.7 trillion in spending cuts, a healthy share of which comes from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, of course …
Republicans are rejecting this even though it nominally meets their demands. Why? Because it doesn’t achieve either of their two real objectives. In particular, the plan doesn’t cut Medicare, which means that Democratic party candidates for office in November 2012 and 2014 can accurately remind voters of the content of the Republican budget plan. …
,,, Second, while Reid’s plan doesn’t raise taxes, it also doesn’t take tax increases off the table.
Elsewhere, Steve Benen reviews all the offers made to and rejected by Republicans in the past several months.
The Wise, Serious People who think that a deal can be struck before the weekend are the same ones who refuse to see that the Republican Party has become a moving lunatic asylum.
The stock market is down, but not in a rout. Why is Wall Street so calm? Andrew Leonard writes that the Street has reached a weird equilibrium — everyone thinks that a stock market rout will panic Washington into making a deal. But because investors think an eventual rout will cause a deal to be made, there is no rout.
If the Republicans can con Obama and the Democrats into cutting some money from Medicare, they’ll sign the deal in a heartbeat.
Any cuts at all – even sensible ones that would really save money down the road. They will then be able to crow about how Obama and the Democrats actually CUT Medicare, while all the Republicans did with the Ryan Plan was talk about it.
Listen, if you can sell people on the idea of “Death Panels,” this won’t be that tough a sale. You’ve already got the things you need to be successful, – a good messaging machine, an opposition with a terrible messaging machine, and a gullible public of under or misinformed voters, with a healthy dollop of morons tossed in just to keep things spicy.
How do turn a great nation into a nation of fools and slaves? Once you’ve made enough fools, the rest is easy.
It’s good to see Steve Benen’s review of all the deals that didn’t happen..I was keeping up for a while, but in the last couple of days the proposals and rejections came at me with such rapid fire that I got confused. I’m hoping that Obama’s public absence from the circus of the past few days is a sign that he’s not going to play to an audience and has staked out his final position.
I wonder what has reinvigorated Boehner to be the crazy man..For a while there I got the feeling he wanted to bail out on the GOP’s nutjob hostage taking strategy.
Obama’s getting some heat from the Dems too. Bernie Sanders voiced hopes for real liberal opposition to the President in the primaries. Today Henry Waxman asked the President straight-out to tell the dems in advance if he decided to cave on issues.
Obama replied to Waxman in much the same way as he had the Republicans, first reminding his that “I am the President” and adding that “my voice carries weight.”
Oh me oh my, I’m surprised he didn’t threaten to take his toys and go home. I wonder just what being the President means to Obama if not the one who gets to preside over one lop-sided deal or another.
I know, I know….he’s te best we have and better than any the GOP can muster but that somehow leaves me feeling worried.
Obama’s finally going to hold a prime time address tonight.
From what I read, he’s going to support Reid’s plan, with no “revenue” increases, but, at least from what I’ve seen, no Medicare or SS cuts either.
I’m not going to comment until I know what he says. I’m just not sure I want to watch it. This is the greatest hoo-hah about something that should have been nothing more complicated than a simple declarrative sentence coming from Congress raising the debt ceiling – and he and the Democrats got chumped into making this into a battle akin to Armegeddon.
Plus, wasting his speaking skills on this BS is like having James Earl Jones read ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dock,’ or Meryl Streep read the lyric’s to “My Little Buttercup.”
Too bad he waited until now to speak out in prime time…
Oy!
Suppose. The influence of the Tea Party has peaked. Polls suggest this is a trend. Democrats may skin the Republicans with their base – Seniors- over support for the Ryan plan.
Suppose. The man behind the curtain KNOWS that the Republicans can’t take the Senate or the White House and MAY lose the House. Big Suppose, I admit. But the current crisis may devastate tlhe Tea Party if they take the blame for an economic collapse..
If your political power has peaked, you grab what you can, while you can. For Norquest & Kotch that’s the Balanced Budget Amendment. If. the BBA gets passed in Congress, there is NO statute of limitations on getting ratification by 38 states. And there is NO constitutional provision for Congress to retract a previous vote. Repealing a BBA would be a hitch, because they only need 13 states to stand against a repeal.
The game for the next year is entirely getting the BBA through Congress. That’s why a vote on the BBA is in the GOP plan introduced today.
Doug, that assumes the tea part is rational.
Off the top of my head, Wall Street is waiting with (anticipated glee) for sky-rocketing interest rates to happen should the debt ceiling not be raised.
Which brings me to the observation that we are living in singular times – usury laws are no longer in effect in this country. Usury laws have been pretty consistently in effect since at least the time of ancient Babylonia. Thus, money/capital is moving at a speed-of-light rate to financial entities, which means away from manufacturing – the life’s blood of capitalism. Didn’t the GM executive say a few years ago that GM only makes cars so it can make loans (on them?)
The question in my mind is can these economic policies continue without causing a major tsunami world-wide? I really don’t think so – which will make these times a first in world history.