Re McConnell's desperate, pathetic proposal to give POTUS unilateral control over the debt ceiling

Great Debates
1

Per the latest brainstorm from the Republicans. I cannot recall a more desperate and craven political tactic in my lifetime.

In this bizarre proposal the Republican leadership has all but acknowledged that no one is driving the GOP train, and they have no power over the Tea Party wing’s insistence on no revenue increases via taxes.

When the first social security checks get missed and the polity looks at the obvious cause, and Obama has made sure that sign pointing to the Republicans is in neon, the Republicans will stampede in front of the mob over the cliff like a herd of frightened buffalo. Obama is playing their inflexible bombast like a fiddle.

Phil Gramm once said “never take a hostage you aren’t prepared to shoot”. We’ll see if the GOP is prepared to let the Tea Party pull the trigger on this.

2

I agree. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard about this on the radio this morning. As I understand it, McConnell, a Republican, is proposing that Congress pass a bill ceding full authority for the debt ceiling to the President. That way, Republicans can vote for the bill, the president can raise the debt ceiling, and the Republicans can look their constituents in the eye and say (with a straight face, we assume) that they did not vote to raise the debt ceiling and that it was that evil, socialist Kenyan who did it.

And Boehner is supporting it.

The headlines should read: “Republicans to Obama: We can’t run the country. Here, you do it!”

Cite

3

Not that I think its bad anytime the Republicans cede authority to Obama, but I have to laugh at the utter craven cowardice of it all while enjoying the fracturing GOP.

They are so at the mercy of this Tea Bagger shitstorm they’ve stirred up that the adults in the party, the ones who know we will raise the debt ceiling and it is not an option to default, are trying to give Obama all authority to do it so they can crawl back to the monster they’ve created and whine about how the evil Obama did it all on his own!

And I thought they were the party who was more disciplined, less afraid to look like shitbags while pursuing a retarded ideology? What they need to do, and of course they won’t do it, is to tell the Tea Baggers to fuck off and they are raising the debt ceiling, its been done on an average of once a year for decades, and they are simply not going to play chicken with the US defaulting on its debts. But of course they are too afraid to do that.

Motherfucking cowards, all of them.

4

Wow, well said. And they are doing it while we have real men and women risking their lives in two wars. These pathetic, empty suits don’t even have the courage to vote.

5

I’ll take dude seriously when he offers Obama unilateral control over the tax code.

6

Even if this proposal somehow passes, why would Obama sign it? I’m not exactly his biggest fan or anything, but he’s shrewd enough to see it for the obvious trap it is. He gets to unilaterally raise the debt limit, but Congress gets to call him a dumbass three times between now and the election. Not really seeing any benefit there. As it is, he’s got the GoP in a bad position…either they throw a bone to the Dems, or they get the blame for stopping Granny’s social security check.

7

This isn’t The BBQ Pit, so please keep it a little cleaner than this.

8

Are you kidding, Oakminster? I can’t wait to see how the fallout for this plays if it goes through. Even the Teabaggers aren’t this stupid (well, not all of them, I assume), and neither the Republican challengers in the primaries nor the Democrats will ever let them live this down. Sure, Obama will get some blame for raising the ceiling, but pretty much only from people for whom “He voted to give more power to Obama!” is an even worse charge.

I hope this passes and Obama holds a press conference at the signing at which he says, "Some people think leadership is all about being tough and never backing down. And sometimes that’s true. But in this instance, John Boehner and the Republicans in Congress have shown us that sometimes true leadership is having the courage to say, ‘We can’t do this. We need help. We need someone else to solve our problem.’ That’s a hard thing to say, especially when you’re in a position, as Mr. Boehner is, in which you’re expected to be able to do things, to make the hard decisions, and solve problems.

"So today I want to say: Thank you, Mr. Boehner. Thank you Mr. McConnell. And thank you to all those Republicans who finally had the courage to admit that they don’t have what it takes to make the big decisions that affect the future of this great nation of ours. Fortunately for all of us, you have realized that there is no room for pride when it comes to doing what is best for our country, for our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, for our senior citizens, and for our children, all of whom rely and depend upon the funding made available today, funds that we promised to them, that we owe them, and that it is our financial and our moral duty to pay.

“Believe me when I say, better men and women than you have been unable to do what you did. Tragedies have occurred and wars have been lost because someone was to stubborn and too prideful to admit when they were in over their heads. But thanks to you, we no longer have to face this one particular tragedy because thanks to you, at least in this one small area of decision making, the grown-ups are now in charge. Thank you, and may God bless America.”

9

I would take a day off work and spend it giggling like a kuru victim if Obama ever gave a speech even close to that, Alan!

10

It sounded just like he would sound if he made it.

(confused by the correct smilie)

11

The Republicans won’t be able to sell that idea to anyone who isn’t already against Obama. And they’d probably have a hard time selling it even to the Obama haters.

This will come across as the economic equivalent of Osama bin Laden: the Republicans can’t handle a big problem so Barack Obama has to step in and fix it.

12

You know who else had unilateral control over the debt ceiling?

13

The GOP knows how to play the game. The people in this thread criticizing them, not so much.

14

In another thread I called them “gutless weasels”. Is that okay?

Bob Vila?

15

Thing that gets me is the tortured procedural reasoning here. McConnel wants to set it up so that Obama offers a new ceiling, and then Congress gets a chance to not endorse the proposition, but only to reject it.

So then Obama can veto the rejection (!), and Congress can override the veto and send the country over the cliff with a two thirds majority. Which is, for all practical purposes, impossible.

What? I mean, I don’t even…

I’m thinking they’ll come back tomorrow and try to wring some concessions for a position they’ve already abandoned. Or they’ll balk, pretend he never said it, and its square one all over again.

(In times like this, I like to peruse the comments and such at some of the more rabidly rightarded sites. They are losing their shit, hooo doggies! If I were a better person, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I do. But I’m not, and maybe you aren’t either, so…)

16

The only people stupid enough to confuse raising the debt ceiling with increased taxes are Republicans anyway. Plus, since they’ll keep fighting about the deficit, they’ll soon forget.

My question is: is this constitutional? Is it ceding power which is legislative to the executive branch? Will a TeaBagger sue to stop it?

17

^^This.

Pretty much sums it up. Can’t think of anything to add to it.

18

Kinda wondered this myself.

IANAL but I suspect it is constitutional.

A week or so ago we debated whether the president could ignore the debt limit (a constitutional question that the US pays its debts).

An obvious (and reasonable) argument was the Executive branch cannot issue debt to raise money. That is the realm of Congress.

Congress holds the purse strings and I suspect they can give them to the president to play with if they want. The proposal is specific in that it is time limited (expires in 2012 so only Obama can do it), details amounts given in, potentially, three waves and allows congress to override it.

No doubt when they were dreaming this up they had lawyers pour over it.

I am willing to bet the proposal would survive a legal challenge (even assuming a Tea Bagger or anyone else could get standing to sue in the first place which I doubt).

19

Yes, that’s fine. The vitriol in that post (“shitbags,” “retarded,” “motherfucking corwards”) was more than I want to see in this forum.

20

The people in this thread know that the time for childish game playing is over and someone has to step up to do the real work. You, not so much.