Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a plan today to broker a clean raise of the debt ceiling which would essentially wash the Republicans' hands of their involvement in the whole ordeal and place the responsibility of raising the limit squarely on the shoulders of President Obama.
(Reuters) - Senate Republican Mitch McConnell plans to offer legislation to force President Barack Obama to formally request an increase in the fast-approaching $14.3 trillion U.S. debt limit, congressional aides said on Tuesday.
With lawmakers divided over how to reduce U.S. spending, the measure would also require Obama to come up with $2.1 trillion in cuts, the aides said.
Talking Points Memo has more:
The plan would require Congress to pass a bill allowing Obama to raise the debt limit on his own, contingent on a series of steps: Obama would have to notify Congress of his intent tor raise the debt limit -- a high-sign to Congress that would be subject to an official censure known as a "resolution of disapproval," and which Obama could veto. If he vetoed the resolution, and if Congress sustained the veto, then Obama would also have to outline a series of hypothetical spending cuts he'd make, equal to the amount of new debt authority he'd give himself. Only then would the Treasury be allowed to issue new debt.
John Boehner already signaled this morning that he agrees with Mitch McConnell's approach by saying "this debt limit increase is his [the president's] problem," which basically means that they are giving up.
If the legislation proposed by McConnell is passed, President Obama can raise the national debt limit without a single cut to spending. Congress will then have the opportunity to pass a series of symbolic resolutions condemning the president for doing so. And in a worst case scenario, President Obama would have to propose entirely hypothetical and imaginary spending cuts he would make if it were up to him.
Considering how crafty and elusive the administration can be when it wants to, the threat of requiring phantom spending-cut proposals and the passage of ineffectual congressional resolutions condemning the debt ceiling seems completely impotent. What will stop the administration from including tax-hikes and long-term cuts to defense spending in every proposal? It's all hypothetical!
McConnell and the Republicans may be under the mistaken belief that anyone in the media will give a shit about any of this as soon as the looming Holy-Shit-We're-Gonna-Die™ crisis is over, but congressional resolutions and hypothetical daydreaming do not stoke the media's interest like a potential financial-apocalypse horse-race does. And before ya' know it, we'll be back to discussing the very serious wingnut primary.
President Obama and congressional Democrats could reject the plan and continue drilling the Republicans for their brinkmanship and steadfast defense of the wealthy, but it would seem that a clean increase of the debt ceiling, or one with very minimal spending cuts, is now the most likely outcome.