>>I agree this could be a good thing, most likely a negotiating tactic. Boehner knows that Obama is desperate to get a deal that will take debt and deficits off of the table until after 2012. A smaller $2 Trillion deal will guarantee another spending cap crisis in 2012, IMO, right in the middle of the election when raising taxes will be even more onerous for pols up for reelection!<<
Yes. Exactly.
The only thing you’re missing is that the $2 trillion would refer to budget cuts that would occur over more than just one year. To get another “spending crisis” before the 2012 election, the debt ceiling has to be raised a lot less than $2 trillion, say $.5 trillion or so. That way this whole scene gets replayed before the election and we can go for another series of cuts.
Republicans will then go into the 2012 election having succeeded in cutting spending while Dems have been arguing for increasing taxes. This should be a winning strategy given the public fear, a well-justified fear, of the rising level of government debt. numbers