You Go Your Way,I'll Go Mine

Late last night Red State started warning teabaggers about the Tan Man's proposal to have a two-tier approach to the debt ceiling with the first a short-term agreement where $1.5 trillion in spending cuts ,raising the debt ceiling a trillion and then before the next election another vote. They were furious that this second vote would allow Obama to say he reached a bipartisan agreement before the presidential election and give him credibility. They urged all Republicans to oppose it.

The problem as many bloggers have noted is that if you say that Obama is a Marxist, socialist, terrorist-sympathizer, this feeling of the base will be "emotionally" felt by the Republican congress critters who just don't want to accomodate the President of the United States. Make sure this is about spite played out at a suicidal level. The coding was seen on Drudge this morning with headlines under Obama's picture "Left Out". Then in red a quote of John Boehner saying" Congress makes the laws of this country,Mr. President. You decide which ones you sign."

Boehner had telegraphed that he would have a plan ready before the Asian markets open. He doesn't. He told Republicans he would give them the details on Monday and they should wait. I believe he faced severe resistance from the Default Caucus. We'll see tomorrow. But Boehner said the Republicans will move ahead unilaterally. Which has been their attitude since winning one part of one third of the government.

Senator Dick Durbin ,repeating Colin Powell's maxim on Iraq,told Republicans on the economy,"You break it, you own it." This is what the GOP wants to avoid at all costs because they believe they can hang Obama with the economy. How a Republican would actually bring the economy back from the grave is the great mystery given their current crew of contenders. It's no wonder that Wall Street, much to the chagrin of the Left, is lining up big bucks for Obama's re-election campaign.

The atmosphere in D.C. has gotten so toxic that a fight broke out last night on whether August 2 was really the deadline and Republicans accusing Geitner of lying, saying it really is August 10. For history buffs, Republicans forced a default on the national debt in 1979 during Jimmy Carter. Even thought it lasted a very short time, it ended up costing the country millions. But it made the point and so helped Reagan get elected.

It's too late to recall how we got here. But Republicans are not interested in the debt--never have been, never will be. The New Republic had an excellent article on how phony Paul Ryan is on this issue by showing how when even the Gang of Six adopted some of his ideas like lowering tax rates and removing loopholes he immediately came out and opposed it. Even Grover Norquist, one of the evil geniuses behind the Republican no tax policy, is beginning to freak, arguing that more revenues doesn't necessarily mean tax increases. But the other evil genius Karl Rove has run more ads against raising the debt ceiling than the Democrats counter-campaign. And Karl was the top political adviser to the President who plunged the nation into the largest debts ever incurred by a President, even with inflated dollars.

The Democrats are writing their own plan. It calls for 2.5 trillion in cuts but a large portion of that is an accounting trick of including the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The point is that if passed, then we don't revisit the issue until 2013 after the presidential elections. The plan includes no new revenues,thereby paving the way for possible sane Republican support.

The most bizarre idea that was floated last night was the idea of creating a Super Congress or Super Committee composed of 16 members, selected from each body and from each party, who would get to rule on entitlement reform and their suggestions would be mandatory for an up and down vote. Since we have shredded the idea of democracy recently, why not dispose of elected government completely. I seriously hope this was a non-starter. The idea has its origins in Mitch McConnell saying that the Constitution needed to be rewritten for these situations. Well,as an older conservatgive guru , Barry Goldwater said, "Governing is the art of compromise." This is something sorely lacking among the Republicans.

So we again wait for tomorrow and the mutual recriminations. Meanwhile the dollar has plummeted against the Euro and Yen.