Flaylo
Handsome Devil
Peter Dreier: Republican Rift: Big Business vs. Tea Party
This is why they will not win the White House.
The major corporate lobby groups -- like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable -- wanted Congress to lift the debt ceiling. They weren't interested in linking the debt ceiling issue to either tax reform or budget cuts. They care about both matters, but they just wanted to avoid an economic meltdown, and they lobbied Congress to get it done.
The Tea Party wanted to use the debt ceiling issue -- which in normal times is raised without controversy by Republicans and Democrats alike -- to manufacture a crisis over the budget, by demanding that Congress slash government spending without raising taxes, even on the very rich, as a quid-pro-quo for lifting the debt ceiling. The Tea Partiers latched onto the debt ceiling to win ideological points, embarrass Obama, and test their political muscle with the Republicans in Congress, especially the members elected in November and others who identify with the Tea Party caucus. A significant number of Republicans in both houses did not want the debt ceiling raised regardless of what the consequences were for the economy.
This rift within the GOP put enormous cross-pressures on House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Both are conservatives who have who pledged allegiance to the Tea Party's right-wing principles and signed the "no tax" pledge demanded by Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. (All but 13 Republicans -- six in the House and seven in the Senate -- have signed ATR's pledge). Boehner and McConnell not only support the Tea Party views, but owe their leadership positions to support from their colleagues in Congress who view themselves as Tea Party allies.
At the same time, both Boehner and McConnell know that it is Big Business that fattens the GOP's campaign coffers with the funds needed to elect Republicans. They were caught in the tug-of-war between the two wings of their party. When, early in the negotiations, Boehner hinted that he might be willing to cut a deal with President Obama that would include some tax increases, he faced a rebellion within the GOP ranks in the House, led, not too covertly, by Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Boehner quickly recanted.
This is why they will not win the White House.