SocraticGadfly: #Debtmaggedon - Obama shafts House Dems blows McConnell

August 01, 2011

#Debtmaggedon - Obama shafts House Dems blows McConnell

Here's where many a Member of Congress stands:
"I don't want my hands on (Debtmaggedon.)"

Those were the words, in part, of North Carolina Democrat G.K. Butterfield:
“I wouldn’t call it anger, but we are perplexed that it has turned out like it has. But we’ve run out of options and we know the consequences. I’ve heard horror stories from the Great Depression. I don’t want my fingerprints on that.”
Well, thanks to Preznit Kumbaya's surrender on the Bush Obama tax cuts last December, along with the asymmetric warfare of tea partiers, you're being forced to put your fingerprints on something that may cause a second depression as long-lasting as the current one.

Because, Mr. Butterfield, a second recession appears more likely. That's even as Wall Street, in hypocrisy mode, both worries about the effects of these cuts and kvetches about the deficit at the same time.

Those same markets don't like the economy as it is, and now that eurozone problems are becoming more pronounced in Italy, an economy too big to get the Greece treatment, they're more worried there too.

Meanwhile, Rep. Butterfield and other Dems are going to be put on the hook for two votes, the second coming just as 2012 and elections loom, as this NYT graphic of the process illustrates. Technically, it's not for the debt ceiling, but on how to address the debt ceiling, but in spirit, this is another thing Obama said he opposed ... and now doesn't.

Surrender? This is Yalta, or the stereotypical story of Yalta.

Meanwhile, back to Democrats, and back to what this means.

In his excellent analysis, Nate Silver points out that, in making this deal, Obama pissed off Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, having long ago pissed off House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by largely freezing her out of the process.

As for Obama? Most the heavy budget hits start in 2013. Should he be re-elected, he's already hoist himself and his policy options by his own fiscal petard. Were it not so sad for the country as a whole, I'd laugh at the schadenfreude.

Back to other Democrats and the top-linked story. At least one leading black Democrat, Elijah Cummings, is already prepared to hold his nose and vote yes.

Pelosi? Well ... not yet, at least not for public comment.
“I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide,” she said in a statement.
Whether a Raul Grivalja type really wants to vote no, and whether he can cross hands, and hold his nose, and get enough tea partiers and progressive Democrats to combine to sink the deal, I don't know, either.

Raul, here's what Team Obama thinks of you, anyway:
Senior White House officials said they were hopeful that Congressional leaders from both sides would manage to sell the deal to their parties. While “there are some Democrats who simply don’t believe in the necessity of deficit reduction,” one administration official said, “most do. I think it’s important as a party to show Americans that we’re serious about deficit reduction.”
So, go ahead, Raul, make his day.

The person who really logrolled Preznit Kumbaya, in the vulture-like fashion so typical of him? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who else. In 16 months, he'll be majority leader, and Obama just hoisted his second term by yet another petard.

Obama otherwise failed to get around a balanced budget amendment, and failed to get around having some sort of debt-related vote again before elections.

Grover Cleveland? Jimmy Carter? Buck Buchanon maybe? Unless you're an Obamiac who continues to blind him/herself to reality, none of this should surprise you. He's only done it at least half a dozen times on major issues, as documented here. The stimulus, health care, the Bush Obama tax cuts, immigration,

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