No hostage taking this time around

[peacepipe]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-...imit-extortion

Wrapped inside House GOP leaders' proposal to extend the debt ceiling was a subtle concession that the days of debt limit extortion were over.

But on Tuesday morning, they abandoned even that. A Republican source in the room during a meeting confirmed to TPM that "we will be bringing up a 'clean' debt limit bill tomorrow. [Speaker John] Boehner made clear the GOP would provide the requisite number of Republican votes for the measure but that Democrats will be expected to carry the vote."

Just think,if Obama had caved in the last time rethugs would again be taking our economy hostage.

[cutthemdown]

Uh Oh what will dems use to blame the economy on when midterms come up?

[houghtam]

Uh Oh what will dems use to blame the economy on when midterms come up?

I dunno, maybe the last 30some years of Republican economic policy?

[Rohirrim]

Uh Oh what will dems use to blame the economy on when midterms come up?

Supply side economics, which is where the blame should be placed.

[Rigs11]

the rightards couldn't agree on what they wanted so they gave up.

[cutthemdown]

Obviously the liberals won the battle on the debt limit and using it is no longer politically viable.

[Pony Boy]

The republicans are the "Party of Yes" maybe the democraps should try this sometime.

[B-Large]

Obviously the liberals won the battle on the debt limit and using it is no longer politically viable.

I don't think it was a win, it was more the GOP has little gain by a debt ceiling battle- the polls will show they were reposnibsle for ill effects, so why fight? also the midterms are shaping up for an easy GOP hold on the House, and perhaps even a few seats in the Senate.

There is no reason for a Debt Ceiling showdown, no one wins anything from it.

[cutthemdown]

I don't think it was a win, it was more the GOP has little gain by a debt ceiling battle- the polls will show they were reposnibsle for ill effects, so why fight? also the midterms are shaping up for an easy GOP hold on the House, and perhaps even a few seats in the Senate.

There is no reason for a Debt Ceiling showdown, no one wins anything from it.

all the ill effects were created by Obama going out of his way to make citizens feel some sort of sting.

[Rigs11]

Republicans in the fire over debt votes

After voting to shut down a filibuster on raising the debt ceiling—effectively preventing the government from defaulting on its debts—Republicans are under fire from the far-right.

All Senate Republicans voted against hiking the debt limit, but 12 crucially sided with Democrats to cut off Sen. Ted Cruz’ filibuster. Many Republicans switched their vote at the same time, so they wouldn’t have to take on the blame as the “deciding vote.”

Two Republicans facing 2014 re-election battles—Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Sen. Mitch McConnell—are being particularly hit hard from the right for leading that switch.

“Kentucky and America can literally no longer afford such financially reckless behavior from the likes of Mitch McConnell,” the Senate Minority Leader’s tea party challenger Matt Bevin said on Wednesday in a statement after the vote.

McConnell is facing perhaps the toughest, two-sided re-election battle of his decades long career: on the right, Bevin has the support of major tea party groups and a hold on the Kentucky’s grassroots tea party effort and on the left is an unusually viable Democratic candidate, state Secretary of State Allison Lundergan-Grimes. She’s leading McConnell by four points, according to a recent poll.

It’s voting battles like this one that are powerful for an underdog like Bevin, who holds 29% of Kentucky Republican’s votes in a recent poll (down double digits from McConnell’s 55%) and it could throw a wrench in McConnell’s fate.

Texas’ Ted Cruz, the tea party’s most vocal leader in the Senate, condemned all who sided against him.

“It should have been a very easy vote,” Cruz told reporters after the vote. “In my view, every Senate Republican should have stood together.”

He particularly suggested that McConnell’s fate as leader of the party in the Senate was in question, saying simply that it “is ultimately a decision…for the voters in Kentucky.”

The Senate Conservatives Fund—a group McConnell has openly condemned as being manipulative toward conservative voters—released a punishing ad saying that the Kentucky incumbent had tried to “bully” and “silence” conservatives on the debt limit.

“If he wants to vote like a Democrat, he can become a Democrat,” the narrator says at the close of the ad. “But don’t try to fool conservatives by pretending you’re one of us, Senator McConnell. You’re not.”

McConnell may be playing the long-game—while he’s trumping Bevin in polls, he’s vulnerable on the left to Lundergan-Grimes, who skewered the Senate minority leader during the last government shutdown when he voted with his party to defund Obamacare, votes that effectively shuttered the government for 16 days.

“Playing with the debt ceiling is like playing with fire,” New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Morning Joe, adding that he believed the GOP knew it needed to be raised even if they do want to reduce the debt. “I think it actually would help Boehner and McConnell in their caucus.”

Down in Texas, Sen. John Cornyn is also facing the ire of the far-right.

The senator’s tea party challenger–Rep. Steve Stockman tweeted a handful of messages opposing Cornyn’s vote to shut down Sen. Cruz’s filibuster of the debt ceiling hike.

Some of us stand and fight for principle because quitting is easy. Some, like John Cornyn, quit because fighting is hard.
— Rep. Steve Stockman (@StockmanSenate) February 13, 2014


We’re swamped in messages from folks saying they’re no longer supporting Cornyn and are supporting Steve Stockman. Early voting starts Tues!
— Rep. Steve Stockman (@StockmanSenate) February 13, 2014

Stockman is unlikely to trump Cornyn—his campaign website’s splash page boldly asks, Should I Impeach the President? and in December, polls showed Cornyn up by 44 points.

Cornyn defended himself by reminding that he’d voted against raising the debt limit, glossing over the fact that he did indeed side with Democrats’ vote to cut off another Cruz filibuster.

“After five years of out-of-control White House spending, including a jobless, trillion-dollar stimulus, now is hardly the time to give the President carte blanche to continue his spending spree,” the Texas senator and Minority Whip said in a statement. “I voted against raising the debt ceiling because we need sensible reforms to cut down on spending and restrain Washington going forward.”

http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/gop...ver-debt-votes

[cutthemdown]

It's ok to piss the far right off. Like the far left they will vote the party line when it comes down to it.

[Rigs11]

Honestly..you can't make this shet up

Election-year logic explains GOP dysfunction

Washington (CNN) -- To understand how messed up Republican politics are these days, examine two votes in Congress this week that demonstrated the level of GOP dysfunction amid the confusing dynamics of an election year in Washington.

On Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner and 27 other Republicans voted to allow the federal borrowing limit to increase, joining nearly unanimous Democratic support to pass the debt-ceiling measure over the opposition of the other 199 GOP members.

The next day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 11 GOP colleagues voted with the Democratic majority to reject an attempted filibuster of the same legislation by fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Minutes later, all 12 of the GOP senators who helped defeat the filibuster bid voted with Cruz and the rest of the Senate Republicans against final approval of the debt-ceiling plan, which passed anyway due to unanimous Democratic support.

In other words, Republican leaders in Congress sided with Democrats to push through legislation opposed by most of their colleagues. In the Senate, they then voted against the proposal that their earlier support ensured would pass.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/politi...html?hpt=hp_t2

[cutthemdown]

It's how it works. Repub leadership decided they wanted to let dems pass it, but still let dems own the legislation. They let is pass, but didn't really vote for it. It's one of those things where Dems need to realize they are fully in charge and own the whole economy.

[peacepipe]

In other words, we're too irresponsible to do our job,so we'll let dems be the responsible party. boehner & McConnell have no control of there party.

[cutthemdown]

That's not it all. They demonstrated control over the tea party and got what they wanted. A clean bill that media and dems can't use to blame them on.