Ezra Klein/Washington Post
As a rule, Republican policymakers believe corporate leaders, captains of industry, and private-sector "job creators" should get exactly what they want from politicians. After all, the GOP argues, business leaders are the backbone of the American economy and the free-enterprise system. If they have a request, it should be honored.
With this in mind, it's fascinating to see Republicans' Big Business allies telling their political allies not to screw around again with the debt ceiling.
The Treasury Department says the government will reach its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by the end of the year. But "extraordinary measures" could delay the need for a new, higher, limit until early 2013.
Businesses and Wall Street want Washington to fix the issue well before that. Specifically, they want Congress to agree on a lame-duck package that avoids the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes dubbed the "fiscal cliff" and provides a framework for a broader deficit reduction deal next year. At the same time they want to prevent 11th-hour brinksmanship of the sort that triggered a U.S. credit downgrade in the summer of 2011.
Rob Nichols, president and chief executive officer of the Financial Services Forum, told The Hill, "The downside risk here is significant if we don't include [a debt-ceiling increase with the ongoing fiscal talks]. It's very sensible to include that, so we don't roil the global capital markets any further." Ken Bentsen, head of the Washington office at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, agrees, as does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Remember, we're not talking about MoveOn.org urging Republicans to be responsible; we're talking about corporate lobbyists and industries that tend to keep GOP offices on speed dial and are accustomed to having Republicans take their fears seriously.
But in this case, Corporate America and Democrats are on the same page, hoping to see a debt-ceiling increase included in any kind of fiscal talks before the end of the year, while far-right GOP lawmakers insist on a replay of the 2011 crisis.
Some in Washington may have forgotten this, but the Republicans' debt-ceiling scandal last year did severe damage to the American economy, depressing job creation, rattling global markets, crushing consumer and investor confidence, and undermining the nation's reputation and credibility around the globe. When Republicans, for the first time in American history, said they were prepared to trash the full faith and credit of the United States, on purpose, unless non-negotiable demands were met, GOP policymakers hurt the very people they claim to represent and care about most.
The "job creators" are urging their allies not to make the same mistake twice. We'll see soon enough whether Republicans are prepared to listen.
Leave a Comment:
Most Repub policies are bad for business. How they ever got a reputation to the contrary is beyond me. CEOs will always be okay, but most business owners generally cannot take much more of the stagnation caused by Repub obstructionism, much less the hits they take when Repubs damage the country on the worldwide stage.
I expect most businesses to start telling the Repubs to either do their jobs properly or be prepared to get booted off the stage entirely.
Most mammals are genetically predisposed (to a greater or lesser degree) to gluttony as a means of dealing with seasonal scarcity and ecological competition. Feeding them all they want is always bad for them, but humans who do that for them are always very popular with them.
Yeah, I'm going with "not." When it came time to make campaign contributions, the business and finance communities lavishly rewarded the Republicans for doing the exact things the business and finance communities urgently begged with them to not do during the 112th Congress. An all-carrot and no-stick incentive structure is not conducive to getting results from any politician, but particularly not the pig-ignorant dogmatic blockheads they got elected in 2010.
One wonders whether Big Business and Big Finance are scared that if they start injecting performance into their campaign contribution criteria, it might trigger scrutiny of the way they've completely decoupled performance from compensation in their own upper tiers.
If it didn't mean harming all the rest of us, I'd love to see these corporate pimps get kicked in the teeth by their wingnut whores.
My question is why on earth would Republicans believe that "The Treasury Department says the government will reach its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by the end of the year." I mean aren't the GOP gate keepers of such economic knowledge "Fox and Friends", Limbaugh, and Hannity? Surely such bastions of radicalized liberal bias like the Treasury Department can't be trusted with such a dire economic forecast.
Ahh is big business afraid the automatic cuts might intefer with the waste fraud and abuse they rely on to get nice fat contracts? Maybe Obama going after welfare fraud and medicare fraud has the worried? Trust me they are not worried about America, just their bottom line.
Government contractors are republicans who, after overchargeing/profiteering/stealing,, guess what,, they don't want to pay taxes..
Consumer Demand is the engine of job creation. Companies/Businesses are simply opportunistic in satisfying that demand. Always follow the money.
Always follow the money? I despise going into sewers and back alleys.
"Job creators" like "right to work" are repuke euphisms for union busting.
Wall Street's purpose is to provide liquidity. The government via "socialized banks" could do a much better job. Make loans to businesses that do create jobs, not steal them, and that part of the loan that pays wages does not have to be paid back.
Communism? Why should we pay for a business to pay wages that go to producing the goods they sell for a profit? You are not making any sense with this idea.
"At Will" is another code word for union busting just on a State level.
Profit and wages are taxed.
How many times must we hear this whine about the "job creators" - the fatcat corporate CEO's that suck on the government teet and then whine about how high their tax rates are, puhlease! Frankly because they've been so overly rewarded over the last decade, they should be paying 50% in taxes, period! No carried interest, no "carried interest" when it really is salary, no sucking on the government teet - it really is that simple for those "job creators"!!
And since when does giving a "job creator" cuts on their PERSONAL INCOME going to create jobs, anyway? There are corporate entities, and then there are personal fortunes. And seeing as how rich people tend to be the most self-entitled people out there who not only expect but get things for free (and I have seen it myself) in amounts more than I make in 10 years, how will that stimulate the economy? How will that create jobs? Do you know what would stimulate the economy? ME paying less in taxes. ME paying less in day care, ME paying less for college tuition (and yes, I pay both). Just sayin'.
Hi Rachel,
Why has there not been any discussion yet wrt the World Banking system and BASEL III compliance kicking in? That the currency revaluations around the world would now be backed by assets vs. the FIAT system? That the petro-dollar mandate is going away? These are global issues that directly impact all of our trade relationships and the value of the dollar wrt to other currencies.
Do you have any sort of link to a story about this?
We live in a consumer driven economy.
As a potter, I "make stuff to sell."
When MORE people than I can supply want "stuff", Then I hire someone. The same holds true for shoes, automobiles, houses, and fighter jets.
That wasn't so hard, was it (Mr. Republican 'job creator')?
Day: Short, sensible, to the point and right on.Run for congress would ya?
So now that everyone knows who will be in the White House for the next 4 years, are corporations going to continue sitting on $3 trillion in cash, or will they finally start spending some of it? We are seeing signs every day that the economy is recovering, albeit at a slower rate than we would like to see. As the economy recovers, more people have jobs and with that, money to spend. Here in MN, we had a report today that home construction in the Twin Cities is ramping up at such a rapid rate that builders are having a job fair to find more workers. But all we here from repubs is that they are looking at playing the same game as they did earlier this year, willing to hurt the economy because they didn't get what they wanted. The hostage takers are alive and well, and willing to kill the hostage unless dems agree to measures that will cause even more damage, all so that repubs can then pin the blame on dems. The same pattern is repeated over and over at the state and local level...while in control, repub policies wreck the economy, dems come in and clean up the mess, usually with unpopular policies like tax hikes and cuts in services, then repubs win the next election by focusing on those unpopular policies that fixed the mess. Fortunately, people seem to be catching on to that game, and repubs are starting to pay for it at the polls.
Steve,
Please keep your eye on the ball here: impending cuts to social services in exchange for "tip money" from the rich. The MSM is focusing on the battle over revenues, and will position any minor movement by GOP as huge, and anything less than massive cuts to spending as the left being crazy...The Repubs are once again taking the liberals for a ride, and the MSM is happy to oblige...
"the Republicans' debt-ceiling scandal last year did severe damage to the American economy, depressing job creation, rattling global markets, crushing consumer and investor confidence, and undermining the nation's reputation and credibility around the globe."
Steve, you act as if that were some sort of a bug in their program. Don't you get it yet? It's one of the functions of their program. That is the way it's designed to work. The whole idea is to destroy everything and then blame it on Obama, meanwhile taking advantage of the opportunities that pop up. Crisis Capitalism, anyone?
This is why, at the time this happened, I argued that Obama shouldn't have made any concessions at all. EVERY SINGLE TIME a budget will come up, Republicans have learned that it's to their benefit to drag it out. EVERY SINGLE TIME, it will be politically advantageous to hurt the full faith and credit of the United States because Obama gave them the thumbs up for it. It worked! For all the bickering about how much damage they did, the Republicans still got what they wanted and still managed to get a lot of people to vote for more of it.
Get used to it, people. Both parties are going to deliberately create budget/debt crisis because they know it will help them if they're in the minority. And the majority may or may not cave; it doesn't matter because it worked once, and that's all it takes.