I stand firmly by my Thursday column that hit President Obama for failing to come up with a viable plan as the debt-ceiling deadline looms.
That does not mean that Republicans look good. Far from it. House Speaker John Boehner put together a respectable package earlier this week, that tied raising the debt ceiling to holding a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment, but not its passage. Now it appears that out-of-touch Republicans in his caucus have forced Boehner to make his plan less viable, by requiring that Congress pass a BBA.
As my colleague, Carolyn Lochhead points out, these zealots have handed more power to Democrats.
Be it noted, many conservatives have warned of the consequences. On July 27, a Wall Street Journal editorial warned:
The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.
This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.
And as I wrote on July 19, any measure that holds a debt-ceiling bill hostage to passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment is a loser.
The Democrats' new favorite word is "compromise." But the real GOP problem is not a refusal to compromise, but a failure to live in the real world.
That does not mean that Republicans look good. Far from it. House Speaker John Boehner put together a respectable package earlier this week, that tied raising the debt ceiling to holding a vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment, but not its passage. Now it appears that out-of-touch Republicans in his caucus have forced Boehner to make his plan less viable, by requiring that Congress pass a BBA.
As my colleague, Carolyn Lochhead points out, these zealots have handed more power to Democrats.
Be it noted, many conservatives have warned of the consequences. On July 27, a Wall Street Journal editorial warned:
The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.
This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout.
And as I wrote on July 19, any measure that holds a debt-ceiling bill hostage to passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment is a loser.
The Democrats' new favorite word is "compromise." But the real GOP problem is not a refusal to compromise, but a failure to live in the real world.
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