Posted on 07/12/2011 3:05:57 PM PDT by tobyhill
The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation's debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The new mechanism would take the place of the current White House debt negotiations among congressional leaders and Obama. Those talks over spending cuts and tax increases have grown increasingly acrimonious.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.
Those increases in the so-called debt limit would automatically take effect unless both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic Senate enact legislation specifically disapproving it.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
No, I think this is brilliant. They have Obama boxed into the corner.
1) he cannot say the Republicans are obstructing the deal because he controls the spending
2) he has to submit cuts to get the spending approved
3) he totally owns when and the amount that the debt limit gets increased
4) there is no discussion of tax increases
5) if Obama refuses it, the responsibility is his if default happens
Let’s see how this plays out, my gut reaction is that this might be a very good chess move.
McConnell has decided there is absolutely no chance of a deal to raise the limit. He knows the House is not going to go for a tax increase and has now concluded obama and the dims will opt for the default option. He knows the media will pin it on the Pubs and it’s going to be 24/7 news of granny having no more SS money so she can no longer buy cat food for her supper.
Simply stated, McConnell thinks the dims will win the propaganda war over the fallout from the feds allegedly running out of money, so he comes up with a plan to let obama and the dims unilaterally raise the debt limit and take the blame for it.
I don’t think his plan will fly and I think we are going to find out where the blame chips fall if 44% of fed spending is instantly cut and the stock market drops 600 points.
A+: In cowardly, aisle-crossing appeasement.
F-: In the likelihood of possessing an actual phallus of his very own.
A+: In cowardly, aisle-crossing appeasement.
F-: In the likelihood of possessing an actual phallus of his very own.
McConnell just gave Obama the US Constitution.
What a Jack***, the fix is in. Do we loathe these people??
Genau.
The debt deal Mitch McConnell is offering is confusing a lot of people, so here’s the core of it: Until now, Republicans have wanted a policy payoff for permitting President Obama and the Democrats to raise the debt ceiling. McConnell is proposing to replace that with a political payoff. That’s it. That’s the deal. The question is why House Republicans would go for it.
The process McConnell is proposing would go like this: First, Obama would submit a request for a $700 billion increase in the debt ceiling, along with a nonbinding proposal to cut spending. That would automatically trigger a $100 billion increase in the debt ceiling to give Congress time to consider the request. Congress could then vote to either approve or disapprove of the president’s request. If they disapprove of it, however, Obama could veto their disapproval, and unless two-thirds of both chambers voted to overturn his veto — a virtually unthinkable outcome given that Democrats control the Senate — he could raise the debt ceiling anyway…
My guess is McConnell is about to suffer a serious backlash from his base. As much as the Senate minority leader’s political incentives might differ from those of the speaker of the House, his ideological incentives are supposed to be the same. And if you believe, as most Republicans do, that the debt ceiling offers a generational opportunity to extract huge concessions from the Democrats, then walking away from that leverage simply isn’t an option, and any member of the Republican leadership who proposes to do so has to be seen as intensely suspect.
Notice the wording in proposed cuts - nonbinding.
Both you and McConnell are making the error of believing your opponent is one who will negotiate in good faith. He won’t. As you wrote, he’s a liar. What is more disturbing, is that he is suicidally bent on destroying America.
Giving such a monster control of the debt ceiling is insane. What does our Dear Leader care if blame is to be apportioned? He will simply lie about it, and his Media minions will spread the lie, and more debt is piled upon the Nation.
McConnell is a fool. He should have shut his mouth and played out what was a winning hand. But, he has blinked and now the whole strategy is in ruins. The Dear Leader wins again, courtesy of a stupid RINO.
Exactly
Is it really that hard to understand what McConnel is doing ?
Obama will reject the offer
I'm with you, hobbsy - it's like no one on this site leans back and engages their brainpan before hitting REPLY.
This plan ain't gonna go over well with Obama and the criminal underclass - they're not going to like it one little bit. It forces them to come out in the open and cockroaches just hate that.
Stock market will drop more like 6000 points not 600. You terminate 12% of GDP propped up by Governement spending your talking a huge mess but one that has to happen.
Just called his office (which is closed). The mail box is full. Can’t leave a message. HA! He must be hearing from a lot of people.
McConnell, as usually, has the toughness of a butterfly. He has no business being in Congress, and no business ‘leading’ anything.
His proposal is incredibly stupid, and no conservative will fall for it. It is an attempt to give in to Obama while fooling his idiot constituents - who must be idiots, since they vote for him.
Reading from an MSNBC source, granted not a very reliable one, it has come to my attention that you have taken some sort of action that has prompted that news outlet to state:
- - - - -
The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation’s debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The new mechanism would take the place of the current White House debt negotiations among congressional leaders and Obama. Those talks over spending cuts and tax increases have grown increasingly acrimonious.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.
Those increases in the so-called debt limit would automatically take effect unless both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic Senate enact legislation specifically disapproving it.
- - - - -
Senator, if this is true, it is of grave concern to me.
It is of such grave concern, that I am contacting you from California. Your actions, if even close to being accurately described here, will doom the citizens of my state as surely as they will your home state’s citizens, and all other state’s citizens.
Please rethink any actions along these lines and scrub them post haste.
We must cut spending now. We must get our national debt under control. We must not give the President these sorts of powers at a time like this.
With all due respect, no.
Pffft, take your own advice and go back an read my comment, carefully.
Y'all sound like the yahoos SanFran Nan paints you to be.
Got mirror?
Mitch's move kills that.
We'll see, do you TRUST him?
He could claim he just cut $100 billion from Medicare and never has to cut a thing.
Something is WRONG with Senator McConnell.
Hand Obama a loaded sidearm, and give him the option of pulling the trigger any time he wants?
The “debt limit” is an artificial figure anyway, a legal fiction that is supposed to give the US Treasury cover to further debase currency by monetizing debt.
If the Treasury needs more cash flow, the revenue is best provided by removing the restrictions on the operation of business and commerce in this country, and giving investors a reason to undertake new enterprises, without having to jump through endless regulatory hoops, only to be denied because they did something that some watchdog group thought was “unfair”.
The cash flow of revenue to the Treasury could be greatly assisted by making the availability of energy (coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power generation) much wider than now permitted. Wealth is created by conversion of energy sources to useful goods and services, and the less expensive the costs of energy, the more efficiently goods and services may be produced. And with widespread production of goods and services, the more revenue may be provided to the Treasury, all the while never putting an onerous burden on the producers.
This isn’t about playing politics. This is about saving this country. It’s a little late for these games.
Political jiu-jitsu was my first, hopeful, thought.
I hope we’re both right.
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