After all this debate about raising the debt ceiling, with all the potential for financial calamity, with all the political posturing and slings and arrows, it appears that we have all missed the boat. Rep. Paul Broun, House Republican, yesterday suggested what we have all been missing. The Debt Ceiling should actually be lowered, not raised. Yes that is the ticket.
On the other side of the Hill Senator John McCain took to the floor of the Senate to describe as “bizarro” the Republican notion that you could predicate a debt ceiling deal on the passage of a balanced budget amendment. Bizarro indeed. McCain stated the obvious, which is that people selling that concept are either ignorant or willfully deceiving people. Have to agree that McCain has that part of it right. What is achievable through this process, from a Republican perspective, has been twisted and bent into something that is unrecognizable. McCain’s tirade did not go without an answer from the Tea Party. From CNN.
Mark Meckler is co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots. He told CNN that many Americans support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution – and “What Republicans should be doing is pushing all the way to the line.” As for McCain’s quoting the Wall Street Journal’s line about “tea party hobbits,” Meckler used his own Lord of the Rings metaphor to strike back at the senator.
“Clearly he’s been corrupted by the ring of power,” Meckler said.
Republican Sharron Angle, who lost her Nevada Senate bid against Democratic Sen. Harry Reid in 2010 with support from the tea part movement, praised the “hobbits” while taking a jab at McCain.
“As in the fable, it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land,” Angle said in a statement. “It is regrettable that a man seeking dialogue, action and cooperation for votes on the floor of the United States Senate has only one strategy to achieve that effort: name-calling. Nice.”
The Speaker will bring his plan to a floor vote today, and I must give him a bit of credit. He whipped the troops yesterday, telling them to “get their asses in line”, and he very well may have saved himself from a humiliating defeat at the hands of his own caucus. If he does succeed in the House then Harry Reid will have some decisions to make. But whatever those decisions may be I feel that Reid, McConnell, and Boehner have a tacit understanding on something. An amended Boehner bill that goes back to the House in different form may well push the House Republican caucus into another corner. The high stakes chess game continues. Has the game been rigged in advance?
http://embed.crooksandliars.com/v/MjEzMjUtNDgzMzc?color=C93033
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
While you are having a good time twisting the Republican noses, I thought I might bring the latest mismanagement by the Democrats.
1. Latest GDP redo 1.3 anemic.
2. 9.1 unemployment-pretty steady for how many months?
3. shopper malaise
4. Apple Computer has more cash reserves than the united states government. There’s a proud achievement by the great uniter.
Now the gang that couldn’t shoot straight is making judgments about the debit limit legislation. Republicans watch out.
Jules
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Jules,
Economy is indeed slow. Unemployment much higher than it should be. Debt much higher than we would hope. But Republican policies would have made matters much worse, because it is driven by rigid ideology that cannot adapt itself to reality.
Now lets be honest here. You don’t mind unemployment, as long as it is union jobs being lost. So, the Republicans were for washing out the entire American auto industry, and wiping out millions of jobs, including in industries that support the American auto manufacturers. How high would unemployment be if the President didn’t take action? Republicans deride stimulus spending, but about 50% of the total were Republican supported tax breaks. The Republicans also had a stimulus bill that was 100% tax cuts. (Surprise, surprise, surprise). Without increasing aggregate demand in the economy, or at least stopping that demand from falling off a cliff, you would have had a seriously worse situation on your hands. That is the fallacy of the Republican position. Slashing overall federal spending now will drop GDP as sure as we are writing on this blog. ALL economists agree on that. The Republican prescriptions, like their failure to enunciate a position on health care, are failures as recommendations, and will be failures as policy should they gain power. Their numbers do not add up.
Bill
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