Thursday, July 28, 2011

Is Boehner's Plan The Best We Can Do?

let's examine the history here. Cut, Cap and Balance is dead. Ryan's plan is dead. Boehner's plan will be DOA.

The CBO scored the plan light on cuts in the front end and heavy on the back end. In the ten year time span where it won't matter anyway. Because all of those other ten year, eleven year, twelve year plans in the past have been so successful in cutting the existing deficit. Oh, right.

Regardless of who leaves the bargaining table first, the Republicans are going to get the blame. More specifically, the Tea Party Republicans.

Ideally, I would like to see variations of the CCB bill passed and sent to the Senate. Make the Senate Dems "the party of No" for once. But that would depend on the Republican leadership being able to put forth a coherent narrative and a spine. So no dice.

It's going to come down to a game of chicken. I honestly believe that Obama doesn't care if the Nation defaults on it's debt or not. Boehner does so he'll cave first and give Obama what they want. A budget with lots of democrat input. In which case the TP Republicans in the House won't be necessary for passage.

This is the hill to stand on. Not next year because it will always be 'next year, we'll fight'.

This is the game they seem to play:

  • The Republicans have the House but they can't do anything over fear of not gaining the Senate.
  • If they win the Senate they can't do anything over fear of losing the Presidency.
  • If they have both houses of Congress and the White House, they can't do anything at all because then they might loose it all.

This is the hill to fight on but it's also prudent to prepare for the worst. Downgrading of the US's credit rating which will affect interest rates, mutual funds and inflation will kick in. Not because of the Tea Party Republicans but because the Senate will accept nothing else but a blank check from the House. But somehow it's the TP Republican's fault for not partisapating in Kabuki Theater.

Back to the Speaker's budget. It's dead. Robert Stacy has this about it:

Of course, any bill acceptable to 218 House Republicans may be impossible to get approved by Harry Reid’s Democrat majority in the Senate.

So why is there the white hot heat for the TP Republicans that John McCain demonstrated? I'm sick and tired of conservatives being the scapegoat of very thing bad to the point where backstabbing bastards like John McCain feels the need to give out Democrat talking points.

The only thing I can think of is because they are voting the way they said they would vote. To cut spending. The Speaker's plan seems to indicate the 'business as usual' that Congress always does instead of actual cuts. Business as usual is what got the Republican party almost beaten to obscurity. It was, in large part, the Tea Parties that got the Republicans back to where they are today. Boehner needs to be kissing their toes not telling them to get back in line.

It's simplistic but the Republicans don't want a default on the Nation's credit rating but Obama has signaled time and time again he's not going to work with any Republican unless they agree with him. Going back to, "I won". It's not going to change now. And somehow this is the TP Republican's fault.

1 comment:

  1. It's exasperating, isn't it? I had to shut off the news yesterday for fear of throwing a brick through the screen.

    It's a good thing that extremists like Jefferson and Madison aren't here to witness what Democrats and Republicans have done to this country.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.