Debt ceiling: DeMint threatens to blow up government, Ryan, Graham look for hostages

[ProSense]

Debt ceiling: DeMint threatens to blow up government, Ryan, Graham look for hostages

by Joan McCarter

Chief Senate Nihilist Jim DeMint is ready to blow government up, demanding a "show-down" with Obama over the debt ceiling.

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Since the debt ceiling was removed from the tax cut deal it remains the primary hostage for Republicans, or at the very least a great opportunity to take some more. Less bombastic, but still just as nihilistic Republicans are thinking ahead to what they can get out of this.

The new GOP House that will be sworn in on Wednesday is eager to make spending cuts, and budget hawks hope to use the vote on the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip to extract agreements from the White House to cut spending.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) has said he's trying to build a bipartisan bloc to accomplish just that, while Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, has wondered what Republicans would "get in exchange" for raising the debt ceiling.

Lindsay Graham knows what he wants in exchange: Social Security cuts in the form of raising the retirement age and means testing. Because, of course, Social Security doesn't add to the deficit and never has. But you can't let a little fact like that get in the way of demagoguery on "shared sacrifice."

At the moment, the White House is talking tough.

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, laid out the fairly alarming implications of the United States defaulting on its obligations while asking the question: What type of insanity would persuade us to do this?

"Well, look, it pains me that we would even be talking about this," he told co-host Jake Tapper. "This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not something to toy with. If we hit the debt ceiling, that's essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. That would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008."

"As I say that's not a game," Goolsbee went on. "I don't see why anybody's talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling. If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity. There would be no reason for us to default other than that would be some kind of game. We shouldn't even be discussing that. People will get the wrong idea. The United States is not in danger of default. We do not have problems with that. This would be lumping us in with a series of countries throughout history that i don't think we would want to be lumped in with."

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[Jackpine Radical]

1. Obama obviously can't let the catastrophe happen.

"If we get to the point where you've damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity."

He has no choice but to surrender on Social Security and reach for bipartisan agreements on finding ways the middle and lower classes can make more sacrifices in order to save and ideally expand the needed tax cuts for the top 2%.

[ewagner]

2. What worries me...

is that Obama will not only be the "first one to blink" but he might even "blink" in advance...and then again and again...somebody has to teach him how to bargain...or even how to play brinksmanship with these guys....

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. Until what you say becomes a reality, I'm not giving into rumor and speculation.

Especially not on DU.

[impik]

6. At this point it doesn't matter if it's true or not. In this place, it's the truth and you can't

change it.

Crazy fringe.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. So I'm learning, sadly. n/t

[ProSense]

5. "He has no choice but to surrender on Social Security "

Oh, he has a choice. Democrats, from the WH on down, should smack down the Republicans' insane chatter on cutting Social Security.

[damntexdem]

10. He has alternatives, but will be use them?

On Social Security, the Dems as a whole, with Obama's leadership, could go to the wall on protecting Social Security, rallying the important (and often right-leaning) voting bloc of the elderly, as well as younger people to whom SS is important to their futures. Tell the story to the American people: (a) as noted, SS has not contributed one dime to the deficit, (b) any future threat of SS to worsen deficits stems from the fact that the Federal Government borrowed SS trust funds and will someday soon have to start to repay the, which makes the "threat" a loan repayment and a failure to do so a default; (c) SS exists to provide a modicum of financial security that will hurt most of the population if taken away; and (d) a major contributor to the deficit has been tax cuts, including those for the wealthy, cuts on which the GOP has repeatedly insisted and made the centerpiece of the "compromise" with Obama.

But most likely Obama and a sufficient number of Congressional dems will instead cave into the right.

[CreekDog]

11. Please don't advise him to give in before negotiations have started

thanks much! :eyes:

[impik]

4. Maybe the Left will wake up and remember who is the real enemy here

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. They (not me) are convinced that it's the president, NOT the Republicans.

They are doing the Republicans' work for them. Who needs enemies from the wingnut world when you've got hysterics on the other side?

[valerief]

9. Woo hoo! DeMint threatens to blow up himself! Go for it, Jimmy! nt