Posted on 07/23/2013 10:06:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Republicans plan to use the debt ceiling as a lever in budget negotiations this fall, according to John Boebner. The House Speaker set the bar in a press conference earlier today, demanding fresh cuts in federal spending as a trade for approving another hike in the debt ceiling:
Setting the stage for a fall showdown over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, renewed on Tuesday his insistence that “we’re not going to raise the debt ceiling without real cuts in spending. It’s as simple as that.”
As President Barack Obama readies a series of speeches later this week setting the parameters for this fall’s fight over government spending, the top House Republican said his position remained unchanged.
“I believe the so-called Boehner Rule is the right formula for getting that done,” he later added, referring to the eponymous rule matching new debt authority with spending cuts[.]
We’ve traveled this road a few times already, but so far the record is mixed. When Democrats had leverage with the expiration of the Bush-era tax rates, the debt ceiling became the only leverage Republicans had to force a deal. The deal on tax rates over the New Year holiday eliminated the Democratic advantage on budget fights, and they bet and lost that Republicans wouldn’t pull the trigger on the sequester, a deal they got by leveraging the debt ceiling in 2011.
However, does this really give Republicans much of an advantage? The reason why the debt ceiling could easily be decoupled from the budget is because there was no budget. The Democratic majority in the Senate refused to produce a regular-order budget for three years, which meant that spending was authorized in a series of stop-gap continuing resolutions and last-minute omnibus deals. The Senate finally got around to fulfilling its constitutional obligations in March of this year with its “Foundation for Growth” budget resolution on a 50-49 vote. (Red-state Democrats bailed on the plan.)
The proper process would be to have the House pass its own budget and then go to conference committee, with the debt ceiling raised high enough to cover the borrowing authorized by Congress in the budget. Furthermore, no one believes that Boehner will really allow a technical default or potential bond crisis to take place, especially with regular order restored; recall that “normal order” was the demand that Democrats reluctantly met in the spring on the last debt-ceiling threat. Boehner’s statement today sounds like a good PR play, but I doubt it’s the actual strategy on the ground in the House.
On the other hand, Senator Mike Lee threatens a less-dangerous government shutdown over ObamaCare — if it’s funded through continuing resolutions, that is:
“Congress, of course, has to pass a law to continue funding government. Lately, we’ve been doing that through a funding mechanism called a continuing resolution. If Republicans in both houses simply refuse to vote for any continuing resolution that contains further funding for further enforcement of Obamacare, we can stop it, we can stop the individual mandate from going into effect.”
Maybe Republicans will declare a belated victory on normal order and leave the Age of Cliffs to the past. No one will know the real answer for another six or seven weeks, but I wouldn’t bet on a big debt-ceiling fight.
Isn’t this what he said back in 2011? I am still waiting for those cuts.
More spending cuts? He says that like there have acutally been any spending cuts to date.
I call BS simple because Boehner said it.
The man’s testicles have retracted somewhere up around his larynx.
Give him some “liquid courage”
He lives on it, anyway.
It’s just beyond stupid. Here, let me spell it out —
You want spending cuts?? Don’t raise the debt ceiling. And then you will get cuts.
This is not a deal. This is not a trade-off. We don’t have the money, so nail the debt ceiling in place and refuse to discuss it — at all. Just focus 100% on the spending cuts.
But Boehner isn’t playing that game, is he? He’s horse-trading. And he stole the horses from us.
Like anyone believes the emanations coming from this jerk’s piehole.
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Shut up, John, you useless jerk.
Yawn. We’ve been here before. Boehner’s dancing down his “Pathway to Capitulation.”
heeeer’s “do it in chunks” johnny again.
just defund obamacare johnny. that’s all you’ve ever needed to do. oh, how i wish republicans would ditch this guy.
I sure am glad that Congress is 'in charge' (?)
..or am I wrong ?
Maybe it wasnt the treasury sec ... but I know I read something last week on the debt limit increasing like $51 billion.
Boehner go have another drink and just shut up. You will give this administration anything it wants. You have already.
You and your ilk are worse than pond scum.
According to recent news items, the ‘Rats have figured out how to spend us to oblivion without a debt ceiling increase. Just raid various other accounts. The next president, if there should ever be another one, can deal with the financial mess...
different verse
same as the first!
Can’t this fool be recalled or impeached from his *leadership* position?
I have had two GOP/REP calls today for contributions. Here is what I said,
“Not one more red cent of mine, to anyone associated with Republicans until the criminal Eric Holder is gone”. I used to avoid these nuisance calls, now I relish them!
If this gets done, this time the House better name the cuts instead of letting the whiteyhut turn it into a PR stunt.
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