WSJ Slams Republicans for Opposing Boehner's Debt Plan.

[Toro]

The most prominent conservative newspaper in the country states the case.

Under the two-phase Boehner plan, Congress would authorize $1 trillion in new debt in return for $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade. Most of that will come from caps on domestic discretionary spending over 10 years—the Pentagon and homeland security are exempt—with automatic spending cuts if the caps are breached. While one Congress cannot bind another, the proposal would at least guarantee real reductions in fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

In the second stage, the House and Senate would convene a 12-member joint select committee with a deficit reduction goal of $1.8 trillion by November. The majority and minority of both chambers would each make three assignments, and any plan that secured seven votes or more would get an up-or-down vote in both chambers with no amendments. …

Strangely, some Republicans and conservative activists are condemning this as a fiscal sellout. …

But what none of these critics have is an alternative strategy for achieving anything nearly as fiscally or politically beneficial as Mr. Boehner's plan. The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout. …

The Speaker has made mistakes in his debt negotiations, not least in trusting that Mr. Obama wants serious fiscal reforms. But thanks to the President's overreaching on taxes, Mr. Boehner now has the GOP positioned in sight of a political and policy victory. If his plan or something close to it becomes law, Democrats will have conceded more spending cuts than they thought possible, and without getting the GOP to raise taxes and without being able to blame Republicans for a debt-limit crackup or economic damage.

If conservatives defeat the Boehner plan, they'll not only undermine their House majority. They'll go far to re-electing Mr. Obama and making the entitlement state that much harder to reform.

Review & Outlook: The GOP's Reality Test - WSJ.com

 

[Truthmatters]

the tea party is just that stupid

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Boehner's plan is a complete joke that doesn't solve the problem. It's insulting to even call it a plan.

 

[Trajan]

The most prominent conservative newspaper in the country states the case.

Under the two-phase Boehner plan, Congress would authorize $1 trillion in new debt in return for $1.2 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade. Most of that will come from caps on domestic discretionary spending over 10 years—the Pentagon and homeland security are exempt—with automatic spending cuts if the caps are breached. While one Congress cannot bind another, the proposal would at least guarantee real reductions in fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

In the second stage, the House and Senate would convene a 12-member joint select committee with a deficit reduction goal of $1.8 trillion by November. The majority and minority of both chambers would each make three assignments, and any plan that secured seven votes or more would get an up-or-down vote in both chambers with no amendments. …

Strangely, some Republicans and conservative activists are condemning this as a fiscal sellout. …

But what none of these critics have is an alternative strategy for achieving anything nearly as fiscally or politically beneficial as Mr. Boehner's plan. The idea seems to be that if the House GOP refuses to raise the debt ceiling, a default crisis or gradual government shutdown will ensue, and the public will turn en masse against . . . Barack Obama. The Republican House that failed to raise the debt ceiling would somehow escape all blame. Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced-budget amendment and reform entitlements, and the tea-party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor.

This is the kind of crack political thinking that turned Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell into GOP Senate nominees. The reality is that the debt limit will be raised one way or another, and the only issue now is with how much fiscal reform and what political fallout. …

The Speaker has made mistakes in his debt negotiations, not least in trusting that Mr. Obama wants serious fiscal reforms. But thanks to the President's overreaching on taxes, Mr. Boehner now has the GOP positioned in sight of a political and policy victory. If his plan or something close to it becomes law, Democrats will have conceded more spending cuts than they thought possible, and without getting the GOP to raise taxes and without being able to blame Republicans for a debt-limit crackup or economic damage.

If conservatives defeat the Boehner plan, they'll not only undermine their House majority. They'll go far to re-electing Mr. Obama and making the entitlement state that much harder to reform.

Review & Outlook: The GOP's Reality Test - WSJ.com

yes I read this this morning. right now, from where they sit, this is the best they will get and escape to fight another day relatively intact.

they will have another debt ceiling plan to structure in 8 months or so AND the 2012 budget, take it now, then regroup.

I saw some of the new house rep.s on the tele., they are coming around.


as one proviso, I am not totally on board with the commission thing. but thats for another day, lets see what happens, I think he will get it through.

 

[kyzr]

I read a terrific CNN article explaining that the GOP is losing the momentum it gained in 2010. The dumb fucks don't get that voters want tax loop-holes closed, subsidies ended, and generally for the tax evading wealthy to pay their fair-share. By protecting the hedge-fund tax dodgers, capital gainers, and over-seas tax shelters the rest of us are picking up the cost.

The GOP had better figure this out shortly, or they will get bounced in 2012. Coburn is a genius, the dopes should just follow Coburn's lead. We can't grow out of this w/o a few tax hikes. I like the Wall Street penny transaction tax for starters. Its what they get for moving 14,000 factories overseas.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

I read a terrific CNN article explaining that the GOP is losing the momentum it gained in 2010. The dumb fucks don't get that voters want tax loop-holes closed, subsidies ended, and generally for the tax evading wealthy to pay their fair-share. By protecting the hedge-fund tax dodgers, capital gainers, and over-seas tax shelters the rest of us are picking up the cost.

The GOP had better figure this out shortly, or they will get bounced in 2012. Coburn is a genius, the dopes should just follow Coburn's lead. We can't grow out of this w/o a few tax hikes. I like the Wall Street penny transaction tax for starters. Its what they get for moving 14,000 factories overseas.

I agree. I think we've quite possibly spent far too much money on credit in order to not increases taxes at some point to pay it off.

 

[ba1614]

Boehner's plan is a complete joke that doesn't solve the problem. It's insulting to even call it a plan.

Yes it is, it accomplishes nothing.

 

[Trajan]

Boehner's plan is a complete joke that doesn't solve the problem. It's insulting to even call it a plan.

Yes it is, it accomplishes nothing.

I don’t agree. It’s a huge philosophical/ideological victory and it will cost obama sppt. If reid gets the bill he will add a curl Q or 2 and they will pass it, that letter today was pure smoke, there are 23 dem senators up for reelection next year, they will gnash their teeth now but shut up and vote it up to Obamas desk and he will sign it.

As I said they will get 2 more bites at the apple. That’s trillion obama gets will be exhausted in less than 6 months.

Meanwhile the 2012 budget will be up right after this is settled.

 

[Toro]

Once again, the WSJ comes out on the side of Speaker Boehner and castigates Republicans for opposing the plan as being too rigidly and unrealistically dogmatic.

Political logic and perhaps even common sense seem to be prevailing within the House GOP after Thursday's debt-ceiling vote was postponed—at least among most of the caucus. The shame is that the debt-limit absolutists have weakened Speaker John Boehner's hand in negotiating a final bill with Senate Democrats.

At the most practical level, Mr. Boehner's plan is better than the one Harry Reid supports in the Senate. This remains true of the revisions Mr. Boehner released yesterday, though the irony is that it is less credible and weaker politically than the previous version. The concession the holdouts demanded, and got—a balanced budget amendment—ensures that it cannot pass the Senate. The best but unlikely scenario is that the bill otherwise remains intact. ...

Instead of such a useful reform, a GOP faction is fixated on a balanced budget amendment. After Thursday's stall, the new Boehner plan will only authorize the second tranche of debt if two-thirds of both chambers pass such an amendment and send it to the states for ratification. This will not happen.

These columns drew much notice after John McCain quoted our July 27 "tea party hobbits" line on the Senate floor. Senator (sic) Sharron Angle responded that "it is the hobbits who are the heroes and save the land." Well, okay, but our point was that there's no such thing as a hobbit. Passing a balanced budget amendment this year is a similar fantasy. Yet outfits like the Club for Growth used the amendment as an excuse to flip from opposing the Boehner plan to supporting it. Maybe it should be the Club for Futile Fiscal Gestures.

The main result of this pointless crusade has been to damage Mr. Boehner's leverage and push the final debt-limit increase in Mr. Reid's direction. The Speaker may now have to seek the tender mercies of Nancy Pelosi to get a final bill through the House, and who knows what her price will be.

The debt-limit hobbits should also realize that at this point the Washington fracas they are prolonging isn't helping their cause. Republicans are not looking like adults to whom voters can entrust the government.

Review & Outlook: The Debt-Limit Hobbits - WSJ.com