- The Rethugs have firmly maintained that if they vote to raise the debt ceiling, the Democrats must not raise taxes in any way ever ever.
- The Rethugs have said that cutting the deficit to reduce the National Debt must come through a Magic Plan that includes some combination of (a) Raising the age at which a person may begin to draw Social Security payments; (b) Freezing or providing for much smaller Cost Of Living Adjustments for Medicare coverage; (c) Cutting some government and defense spending (but not much); and (d) Reduce or eliminate many social programs funded by the Federal government.
- The Rethugs have also said that when totaled, these cuts must be at least $2.4 Trillion dollars. When it was pointed out that this meant in essence that the wealthiest Americans would continue to reap huge benefits, while everyone else paid the cost in reduction of services and a lowered standard of living, the Rethugs chuckled. One or two may have smiled and said, "Of course". Originally, the Rethugs refused to consider any deviation from this Magic Plan.
- Grudgingly, it seemed if the Rethugs couldn't get their Magic Plan, they might agree to some Rube Goldberg, stopgap measure which only kicked the can down the road: In less than a year, there would be another vote to raise the debt ceiling again, and we would be right where we are today with the Tea Partei holding a gun to the head of the country.
- The Rethugs did this to provide maximum distraction and disruption to the Democrats, because they know Obama isn't a liberal and can be pushed; and, if he agrees to what they want, Progressives may desert him in 2012 and the Rethugs put Grand Turtlebear Bachmann in the White House. Or, Mittens; or Huntsman; or Reinhard Heydrich or Little Sarah; it doesn't matter to them who it is.
- President Obama is a person of vision. He wanted a "Grand Bargain" which somehow magically cut things but not all things and made the Rethugs and our Owner Class happy, and solved all the problems and paved the way for a great Democratic victory in 2012.
- The Rethugs smiled at this, and played him -- using a combination of their classic 'Lucy and the Football' routine, and constant threats of forcing the U.S. to default and then blaming it all on the Democrats' inability to compromise.
- Over weeks of negotiation, the Democrats have apparently decided (a) It's permissible to cut Social Security and Medicare -- no matter what language they use to describe it; (b) They are also fine about cuts to social programs, and (c) Asked for new taxes to raise revenue, or allowing the fabled Bush Tax Cuts to expire; the Rethugs said no and Obama and the Democrats said okay. So much for a defense of social principles.
- At some point between Wednesday and Friday of last week, apparently the Rethugs came back to the White House and threw a change-up (they're good for that) -- now, they couldn't agree to negotiate unless changes were made to the Health Care legislation Obama spent time and political capital to pass in 2009 (when he should have been trying to create jobs).
We're playing chicken, all right. We have you in a bind, the Rethugs were telling him. Agree to what we want, or the country defaults and international markets plummet. Or, all you'll get is bridge funding that will ensure we keep this issue hot right into 2012. So give us everything -- and lose. Agree to stopgap funding while we 'negotiate' more cuts -- and lose. Or, refuse -- and lose. That's where we have you.
Herr Obama understood he had been played for a chump. He may have understood that he doesn't have the communications skills (nor does his staff or Democrats generally, it seems) to explain to the Country how this happened, or why agreeing to what the Rethugs want is bad, and that this was all a manufactured crisis. So Obama became unhappy. President Boner got himself one, smiled, and walked out.
And as we circle the drain, Paul Krugman has a few words.
Mehr: The Great Curmudgeon says also, too:
I think the largely unacknowledged bit of all of this nonsense is that most Republicans in Congress don't really want to cut spending, or more specifically they don't want to own cutting spending.
Their main concern is tax cuts for rich people, spending is secondary, and the deficit matters not at all to them. Sure they want to be seen as wanting to cut spending, in the abstract, because that's their brand, but they don't actually want to be responsible for the spending cuts.
Their position is: give us the cuts and don't make us vote for them. Their problem is that while the crazy teabaggers in Congress would generally be happy to vote for all kinds of spending cuts, they won't vote for them if they're attached to the debt ceiling. So that means Republicans more concerned with elections will have to vote for them, along with some Democrats.
by Atrios at 10:35
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