Prepare for the markets to take a nose dive. Senate GOP leader McConnell and House GOP leader Boehner are now claiming that the debt ceiling increase is President's Obama's problem, not theirs. They're treating it as if it's some optional thing, like going into Iraq, that Obama is asking Congress to do, but it's not really necessary. Thus, if Congress is to pass the debt ceiling increases, the President should cuts lots and lots of programs, with no tax increases, because the President already got what he wanted, a debt ceiling increase.
As you may have noticed, John Boehner has now taken to claiming that the debt ceiling is Obama’s problem alone. It’s “his problem,” Boehner claimed today. He also suggested that the GOP’s willingness to discuss raising the debt ceiling is in itself a major concession, and that a hike is necessary only because Obama has asked for it.The GOP knows its mark. The President is being played. And he has a history of caving. And the Republicans know it. So the Republicans are going to move the goal post as far to the right as they can, going so far as to claim that even talking about possibly raising the debt ceiling is some major concession on their part, to run out the clock and force the President to cave again.
“Most Americans would say that a balanced approach is a simple one: The administration gets its debt-limit increase, and the American people get their spending cuts and their reforms,” Boehner said (emphasis mine). Mitch McConnell has adopted a similar tack, claiming this weekend that the need to raise the debt ceiling is the result of a “request that the president made of us.”
President Obama is being played. How he responds will tell the public a good deal about whether he's the man for the job when November 2012 rolls around. America admires strength. Let's hope we see some.
