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The six-word headline in the Wall Street Journal gets it just right: "Republicans Split on Debt-Ceiling Approach." That wasn't the case in 2011, when literally zero GOP lawmakers publicly denounced their party's hostage strategy, but it's certainly true now.
We talked yesterday about Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who became the first Republican lawmaker to declare, out loud and on the record, that the debt-ceiling shouldn't be held hostage for political leverage. The next question, of course, is whether she would stand alone.
The answer is, apparently not. Greg Sargent reported late yesterday:
Reality seems to be enjoying a sudden burst of momentum this afternoon, as more Republicans and conservatives are coming out and acknowledging the debt ceiling will have to be raised. The latest: GOP Senator Susan Collins.
Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley emails me: "Senator Collins recognizes that the debt ceiling is going to have to be raised because the U.S. cannot default on its obligations to pay for spending that has already occurred."
And then there were two.
Of course, that's just the Senate. In the House, Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) said on C-SPAN yesterday that his party's debt-ceiling strategy is "not a good scenario" and raising the debt ceiling is a "mathematical imperative." What's more, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) told the Wall Street Journal his party should give up this hostage and instead threaten a government shutdown over spending levels, and Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) hedged yesterday on MSNBC when asked about the possibility of the House allowing a clean debt-ceiling bill to reach the floor.
As we discussed yesterday, for the Republican strategy to be effective, the party has to march in lock step. The moment some GOP policymakers start to say publicly, "Maybe we should let the hostage go" -- with others making similar remarks in private -- the entire gambit starts to fall apart.
As of yesterday, the Republican plan appears to be slowly unraveling.
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Regression is always an option for Republicans, but maybe, just maybe our friends in Republican suits are awakening to the fact that they were elected to work on behave of the American people, not the Republican party and the FOXNEWS crowd!
I know, Republicans are only coming around because they have realized we are watching them in their desire to blow up the hostages, and we are not having it! -Kevo
My bet is that this "sense" has more to do with corporate $$, and less to do with any sort of "working on the behalf of the American people." I hope you are right, though.
Also, I wouldn't be surprised if GOP Senators are making efforts to sound more reasonable (without any vote costs) in order to head off significant filibuster reform.
Gop does not have debt ceiling fissures, they have anal fissures from taking it so hard and rough for the Tea Baggers!!!!!!
I'm with you metop, this is more about their corporate donors asking them "WTF are you thinking" followed by "our money will go elsewhere"......
It's the math, again....
I think they will move toward a government shutdown or at the very least a partial one followed by stripping the funding from agencies and programs they don't like: Education, HHS, Medicaid just for starters.
They will never have a better chance to deal as much damage to them as they can now and they know it's not likely to come again.
Actually I think the Repubs have hamstrung themselves across the board.
Given the results the last government shutdown got for them that won't work either.
They're either going to have to come up with some solid policy options (hah!) or continue their tantrum while slipping, not quietly, into irrelevance.
I don't under estimate their desire/ability to continue harming us all but I do believe that this push by our home grown authoritarians fails.
Unlike the last shutdown they are secure in their districts save only from primaries from their right. You are right in that they have hamstrung themselves by imprisoning themselves in conservative fortresses but in the words of Milton "Better to rule in hell"
They're coming to realize that the vast majority of Americans and now their own corporate overlords will blame the Republicans should the economy crash because they won't pay America's bills.
Their bull@!$%# has come home to roost...
Too bad - I was really hoping that they would stand strong together, and really poison the GOP brand for decades, if not permanently. There is still hope for that, though.
I have to agree with Collins with one condition, the Senate has to pass a budget. The debt ceiling doesn't get raised until we see it.
Of course you have to agree shooter after all she is one of your darling republican nit wits who just want to run from paying the money they borrowed back because they already got what they spent the money on so being a typical conservative she got what she wanted so its to be a dead beat on paying for it.
That's ridiculous. Try telling your credit card company that you aren't going to pay them until you get your other bills in order...see what happens.
But I can see why they would want to do it. If they can wreck the ability of the US to sell bonds then we really will go broke and the Government will have to shut down any and all spending on anything save Defense and quite possibly even that.
I thought you were smart enough to get that the US ability to sell bonds will not be affected. I guess not. Either that or you're trying to manipulate the low information voter. Fess up.
Meanwhile the Senate is legally mandated to pass a budget every year. Harry Reid has declined, thus breaking the law. We can't let a criminal sully the reputation of Congress. Even the leader of the Senate has to obey the law. Either that or the left has a double standard. IOKIYAD?
What shooter you still trying to prove that you score the lowest of all the low information voters, we already knew that shooter you don't need to prove how little information gets into your bubble.
Annie Oakley: Please check with the talking point committee, you are using worn out and stale canards.
Repeatedly breaking the law is a worn out and stale canard? It's absolutely true, and just another reason why Congress gets no respect. And here you are enabling Reid. You're no better than he is.
That goes without saying shooter after all you supported a law breaker yourself name of Mitt Tax Haven Romney. We know shooter IOKIYAR. Oh btw the difference is Mitt actually broke a law that has landed many a person prison time whereas your rant is a broken law you made up in one of your delusions.
Shooter- Perhaps you should learn how Congress works before you opine on it. The Senate does not have to pass any budget that the House sends to them. That's why the Congress is bicameral. If the House, which originates the budget bill in the first place, puts provisions in the bill which will neither pass the Senate (perhaps due to not being constitutional, etc.) nor be signed by the President, their is no obligation by the Senate to agree to it simply because they "must" pass a budget bill. In fact, several Congresses in the last 30 years have failed to pass a budget.
Also, the idea that Harry Reid is a criminal because the SENATE didn't pass a budget is ludicrous. I can see why you were banned from so many other sites. They simply couldn't waste their time anymore arguing with someone so lacking in knowledge, yet so obdurately clinging to discredited ideas.
My apologies I should have said they have to pass a budget resolution. Happy now? Meanwhile the Senate Parliamentarian has called Reid out.
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/04/senate-has-an-un-budget-parliamentarian-rules/
Is it a surprise that the first (only) Republicans to speak against hostage-taking are women? As we know from November, female republicans are not really part of the party anyway.
It's validating to my feminist sensibilities that the Republicans who are coming out and speaking with sound mind are the women.
“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” --Betty White
Republicans are violating the Constitution if they don't allow the US to pay its bills. But they don't care, just like they are trying to rig the electoral college to get what they want---control. but if they keep it up it will backfire. The American voter is more intelligent, more aware than the Right gives them credit for. If you look at the gerrymandering going on Red states right now they have started violating the majority will and voters rights. And that is a no-no that violates the Constitution.
The Republicans should drop the deficit and debt ceiling, immigration, family choice and concentrate on supporting the NRA, a good civil war will help the economy when it comed time for a leveraged buyout of highly discounted country.