Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today, talking with Christiane Amanpour (sickening, condescending, arrogant, ABC talking head) said regarding the debt ceiling talks, "This is a critical test for the Republican leaders in Congress." Actually, he's spot on, even though he most certainly does not mean it the way conservatives do. You better believe this is a critical test for Republicans. If they fail to follow through on their crystal clear mandate handed to them on election day, they will be job hunting on the next go around. Every single breaking news item regarding this whole discussion gives me a start because I've learned to not put my faith in Republicans, per se, but so far Speaker Boehner is doing the right thing (save the agreement he made 2 weeks ago, which subsequently fell apart.) You can be sure walking away from the president and issuing a statement he will be effectively cutting the president out of the talks and working instead with Congressional leaders was met with cheers from conservatives across the nation. Yes, John! You're getting it! Geithner, in the same interview, said the Republican leadership in the House has a "vocal, loud, frankly, irresponsible minority in their party who want to take this country to the edge of default." Ok, Tim, two things:
1.) I'm pretty sure that "vocal, loud, frankly, irresponsible minority" are the tea party freshmen We the People flooded you with last fall, resulting in the stripping of the gavel from Pelosi's hands. You insult them, you insult us. But I think you know that.
2.) I know it is much more effective in promoting your desire to continue massive levels of spending, to keep repeating the lie that if the Republicans don't give you what you demand, the United States will default on its debt payments. This will only happen if you let it. The government will continue to collect tax revenue and said revenue can then be applied to our debt payments.
I find it offensive that a Democrat-controlled Congress and a Democrat White House took an already excessive debt and massively increased it and then they turn around and insist it is up to the Republicans to come up with a solution--one they approve. The solution is to stop the spending madness and the American people know it. This is what the conservative Republicans in the House are firmly demanding, is a stop and reversal of the spending. Speaker Boehner needs their support and ours to withstand the unrelenting pressure to cave.
What the president is deathly afraid of is the immense pressure of the freshman Republicans being effective and resulting in a bill that he hates landing on his desk. The last thing he wants it to be faced with potential manly admission of fault because he knows he'll fail. This is a man who cannot accept less than what he wants. But what will he do if a bill the conservatives in Congress and the American people laud lands on his desk? If he signs it, he's accepting less than what he, in his arrogance, has demanded. If he vetoes it, he will be single-handedly responsible for allowing the debt ceiling deadline to come and go and then the American people will learn there never was a crisis at all.
C'mon, Speaker. Call that bluff.
No comments:
Post a Comment