Sunday, July 17, 2011

Is the Great Betrayal Coming?

Where the Republicans will be able to pose as debt fighters, but where the President will be able to increase the debt.

Reuters reports:
Even as Boehner touted his party's latest plan at a news conference on Friday, he left open the possibility that the House may take up a compromise being shaped in the Senate that so far has failed to catch on with junior lawmakers.

The cut, cap and balance plan that the House will vote on next week is a solid plan for moving forward. Let's get through that vote, and then we'll make decisions about what will come after," he said at a news conference.

The cut, cap and balance bill conditions a debt-limit increase on passage of a constitutional amendment that would require the federal government to balance its books each year.

Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote. That's not likely in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and may even be a stretch in the House.

Even if it were to pass Congress, the amendment would not take effect until at least 38 of the 50 state legislatures ratify it...

it's smart politics. Polls show that the public, and especially Republican voters, favor a balanced-budget requirement by wide margins.

"This is a vote where ... the House Republican majority gets to align itself with the American public at large," said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and former Boehner spokesman.

Some Democrats have lined up behind a balanced-budget amendment, but few are expected to back the Republican version, which also limits spending to 18 percent of gross domestic product and requires a two-thirds vote for tax increases.

The House is expected to vote on the cut, cap and balance plan on Tuesday, but has not yet set a vote for the balanced-budget amendment.

The Senate could vote on several balanced-budget amendments next week, a Democratic aide said. All are expected to fail.

That would clear the way for a so-called "Plan B" introduced last week by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, which would essentially pin the onus for a debt-ceiling increase on Obama and his Democrats.
The McConnell "Plan B" gives the President the power to pretty much raise the debt limit on his own.

Ron Paul has called the McConnell plan a great betrayal:
McConnell will have betrayed you, me & every other freedom-loving patriot in America.

2 comments:

  1. It isn't a question of IF the Republicans will allow an increase in the debt limit, it's how much. They're trying to game it so we have to answer the debt ceiling question AGAIN before the 2012 elections. Obama obviously wants it after November 2012.

    So, If they put enough spin on it, and kick it to say summer 2012, they'll be giving Obama the finger. If the Republicrats cave and allow this can to get kicked past 2012 . . . one must wonder what they'll get in return? Hidden and not so hidden.

    Trying to save our economy and trim the government budget is quite beside the point.

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  2. So what if they hit their debt ceiling? SO WHAT!?!?

    Let them cut their spending like the rest of us.

    And if they actually DO refuse to send out SSI and military pay, then good. It'll piss off the half of the country that is on the dole.

    Maybe they'll wake up and realized they've chained themselves to a hungry beast that will eat them in lean times.

    Or maybe they'll get eaten.

    Either way, it'll be one less mouth for the gov't to feed, one less vote to buy.

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