What Gives With the Debt Ceiling Talks?

Here's a subject that is rapidly turning me off. If you want an in-depth analysis of the situation, Washington Monthly and Talking Progress and Daily Kos are keeping on top of the situation. But I'm getting tired of the leftwing attacks on Obama for selling everyone out on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Ed Schultz vows not to back him if he cuts any entitlements. Bernie Sanders appears every day and night to urge people to sign his letter urging Obama not to cut the social welfare net. Not alot was said when Howard Dean showed up on MSNBC to say that the President was doing the right thing. Now all the debate on progressive blogs is back to whether Obama should be primaried and personal testimonies on how disappointing he has been and that one will not vote for him. So much for the Popular Front approach to the Fascist threat.

President Obama took to the bully pulpit today at a press conference since the talks started on Friday have broken down. Apparently, Obama and the Tan Man talked about making the grand bargain, which would have put the country on a sound financial footing for years to come. I remember the Clinton-Dole talks on a national healthcare bill after Hillarycare fell in the Senate. On that occasion, Clinton failed to take the deal out of anger. Here it looks like the Tan Man didn't take the deal because of fear about his rival Ricky Cantor and the teabaggers. It was suggested that the Tan Man would agree to ending the Bush era tax cuts, closing tax loopholes and adding over $1 trillion in revenues, while Obama would tackle Medicare and to a lesser degree Social Security. In effect, many of the polarizing issues would be taken off the table for years. But, alas, it was not to be.

Over the weekend, Republican operatives leaked that President Obama was demanding one trillion in new tax revenues. And this apparently rallied the teabaggers. By yesterday the Tan Man had backed away from any major budget deal. So now we are back in limbo with the clock ticking.

When you have The Economist screaming about the GOP's position on the debt ceiling, you know they have gone to a bridge too far. While the Tan Man and Little Ricky have voted to raise the debt ceiling 19 times in their career, there is an emerging suicidal orthodoxy emerging that one shouldn't raise the debt ceiling. What happens--we would lose 10% of GDP within a month and be plunged back into a deeper recession. What happens internationally--probably another 2008 on steroids. What happens if you have 401-Ks, say Goodnight,nurse.

Amid all this political apocalyptic thinking, Mitch McConnell on a Sunday Fox said that the GOP's number one priority was to make President Obama a one-term President. No one calls him out on this stuff. So it's worth making sure millions more are unemployed and the good credit of the United States is ruined forever--it doesn't come back, so that Barack Obama is not a two term President. Remember it was McConnell who one month before Obama took the oath of office told the Republican Senate Caucus to oppose every initiative of the new President's. And then we are already in a Depression.

The mood here is that all the Wall Street powers don't seem to be exerting the control over the GOP needed to bring this situation to a conclusion. Today the GOP said their concession was to agree to raise the debt ceiling--now it's Obama's turn to make cuts. The so-called tax hikes Boehner talked about today don't come into effect for a couple of years but our media lets him get away with saying Obama is going to raise taxes in a recession. Guess what? The American people actually agree by near 70% on raising taxes in a recession.

The Left is howling also because Obama said that everything was on the table. Today it was revealed that Obama was even open to raising the age for Medicare. Here I think the Left has a point. Obama seems to have squandered the winning talking point of the Democrats that the GOP wanted to eliminate Medicare while the Democrats wanted to preserve it. Here Obama has muddied the waters. At the same time, in today's press conference I thought Obama made a mistake by not saying when Medicare would face financial problems. We are talking about 15 years and for Social Security 36 years. Instead, there was a false sense it was an immediate problem. This will be exploited by Rove and others to increase the anxiety of an electorate already under enormous pressure just to live day-to-day. In a strange way, Obama's press conference was not calming but seemed to take a leaf of the GOP by playing to a crisis mentality.

But the devil is in the details. If the deal is on a smaller scale, Obama wins by suggesting he put everything on the table and then wacking the GOP in 2012. If the grand deal was made, some said Obama would ensure his re-election, while also allowing the GOP to hold the House. Boehner saw himself finally becoming a respected Speaker. Actually, I'm sure everyone will spin it the way they need to. But a resolution of this issue is needed soon.

Frankly, I'm for invoking the 14th Amendment and then simply letting all the tax breaks expire on schedule. But then again I'm not a politician.

One issue that should be disturbing was the question at the press conference about the polls on this issue. It's true that a majority don't want the debt ceiling raised. I guess this is because the American people don't understand it is about paying for the already accumulated debt. That's why a Paul Braun can argue he's for lowering the debt ceiling to 13 trillion. While absolutely moronic, I can understand why his constituents would support him on this. And that's the danger of the politicizing the issue.

We now are entering week 2 of the Minnesota state shut-down. This is a lesson in what right-wing ideology looks like. Of course, this will end up being more expensive than if the state government had remained open and running. And it will seriously impact thousands upon thousands of people for no purpose other than the GOP exerting its muscle. That's why we should be concerned about what's happening here in Washington. This seems to be the new theme for Republicans.