Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
The freshmen also heard from GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who offered numbers showing that a majority of Americans did not want the debt limit raised. That sparked lengthy discussions, according to several of those in attendance. The freshmen “left basically saying that if they were going to raise it, ‘We absolutely have to get something in return,’ ” FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon recalled.
About that time, Rep. Jason Chaffetz went to Cantor’s office to chat. Chaffetz, a Utah sophomore, had developed a close bond with Cantor and McCarthy.
Chaffetz asked Cantor: Now that we control the House, how do we use our power?
Cantor didn’t hesitate.
“He said, ‘One of the biggest things that’s going to happen is that we have to deal with the debt ceiling,’ ” Chaffetz recalled in a recent interview. “He, in particular, knew a long time ago that that was going to be a big deal.”
That was a sharper message than Boehner’s, and it had come from his number two.
The leadership, having made the debt limit into a rallying cry, was trying to make sure that the newcomers didn’t push too far. “Leaders like me would try to tell them: Look, no, really, we think it could be bad,” Ryan said. “They’d look at it with suspicion . . . If there was any semi-credible source saying default wouldn’t be so bad, they clung to that.”
Ryan told the newcomers that he learned to work within the system without sacrificing his principles, and he tried to persuade them that they could do the same. He counseled them to be patient, to accept partial victory.
“You have to get a mandate from the country that’s big enough” — control of House, Senate, White House — “to do what we want to do,” he recalled telling them. “We don’t have that kind of mandate right now.”
On Thursday, July 21, Obama’s senior advisers met at the White House with top aides to Boehner and Cantor. For two hours, they went line by line through the emerging agreement. It felt like they were “very close” to the promised land, a senior administration official said.
That afternoon, Obama called Boehner and gave him a choice: If you want aggressive entitlement cuts, I need more revenue. But if you can’t stomach extra revenue, we can dial back the entitlement cuts and still do something important.
The call went well, according to Democrats in the room. That evening, Obama met with Democratic leaders and told them to prepare for tough cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
Twenty-four hours later, the deal was dead. Once again, Boehner walked away. Worse, from the administration’s point of view, Boehner’s rhetoric was growing harsher, at times echoing the most uncompromising voices in his new majority.
For Republican leaders, there was pride in a hand well played. “I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
Chaffetz, who voted against both Boehner’s first proposal and the final bill, said he was well aware of how the leadership had used his and others’ willingness to let a default happen as a negotiating chip, and said he didn’t mind at all. “We weren’t kidding around, either,” he said. “We would have taken it down.”
funny thing
We got preatty much what the dems wanted.
An increased ceiling, and no real cuts.
the only thing they didn't get was more taxes.
Pelley: You were unable to get your own caucus behind your bill a few days ago. Do you intend to remain Speaker of the House?
Boehner: I do. When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the white House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy.
It was pretty obvious to most of the country that the Republicans would have defaulted. Probably why they have dropped so low in the polls.
It was pretty obvious to most of the country that the Republicans would have defaulted. Probably why they have dropped so low in the polls.
I understand that is the fearful message that you want people to believe but the Rebulicans intended to pay our debts without raising the debt ceiling and yes---it could have been done.
I understand that is the fearful message that you want people to believe but the Rebulicans intended to pay our debts without raising the debt ceiling and yes---it could have been done.
I understand that is the fearful message that you want people to believe but the Rebulicans intended to pay our debts without raising the debt ceiling and yes---it could have been done.
the idea that the cons actually believe this is in some ways even scarier than the idea that they were willing to deliberately wreck the economy.
funny thing
We got preatty much what the dems wanted.
An increased ceiling, and no real cuts.
the only thing they didn't get was more taxes.
Boehner: I got 98 percent of what I wanted - CBS News
Pelley: You were unable to get your own caucus behind your bill a few days ago. Do you intend to remain Speaker of the House?
Boehner: I do. When you look at this final agreement that we came to with the white House, I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I'm pretty happy.
But nice try.
I like how you ignore entirely how many Republicans were willing to bring it all down to get what they wanted. Even Mitch McConnell admitted that some members thought it was a hostage worth shooting. The fact of the matter is he's the one who referred to it as a hostage. Which makes them hostage takers.
It was pretty obvious to most of the country that the Republicans would have defaulted. Probably why they have dropped so low in the polls.
I understand that is the fearful message that you want people to believe but the Rebulicans intended to pay our debts without raising the debt ceiling and yes---it could have been done.
I'm sorry that reality scares you.
For Republican leaders, there was pride in a hand well played. “I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming.”
McConnel is an ass for the hostage reference and you're an ass for applying what he said to everyone to the right of you.
Is it only me or does anyone else see an eots moment here? Seriously, all these 'quotes' from the conspirators? Give me a break. This seems to have been compiled in a journolist drinking party.
Is it only me or does anyone else see an eots moment here? Seriously, all these 'quotes' from the conspirators? Give me a break. This seems to have been compiled in a journolist drinking party.
If you're going to call this a conspiracy theory, you might want to have some evidence to back it up. Otherwise you just seem like a hack. These are quotes that for the most part have been circulating for awhile. Including the McConnell one. It's just this article that compiled them.
Right, as if. The hacks are the reporters that are 'reporting' cabal sessions by those bright young revolutionaries, aiming at taking down a system, then reporting their cabal meetings in direct quotes to the Post reporters.
That makes sense, ok.
Thowing in public record quotes doesn't change the fiction of the piece. But you just gain comfort where you can.
That's what real partisan scum hacks do. You are one of many.
Are you denying that we could have paid our debts without raising the debt ceiling ?
McConnel is an ass for the hostage reference and you're an ass for applying what he said to everyone to the right of you.
Did I say I apply it to everyone to the right of me? I'm referring to the Republicans in Congress who were willing to take a hostage and especially the ones who were willing to shoot it. One of the people willing to shoot it was pretty proud of that fact.
