Sunday, October 6, 2013

The continually-shifting GOP rules.

Imagine that, John Boehner used his Sunday off to change the GOP's rules once again, this time it's back to the old debt-ceiling demand from 2011: dollar for dollar matching cuts for debt ceiling increase.

The path towards something...
  • Two weeks ago it was repeal ACA -->
  • A week ago it was a delay of the ACA-->
  • A day after that, it was repeal the medical equipment tax -->
  • Earlier last week it was program-by-program continuing resolutions -->
  • A day after that, it was a demand to restore funding for 200 terminally ill patients -->
  • Late last week it was a request to sit down and have a conversation with the President -->
  • Today it is dollar for dollar cuts for debt increases, or else we hit the debt ceiling and start slashing.
And later this week, will it be Cut, Cap and Trade and the Balanced Budget Amendment redux, followed by Sequester 2.0?  I say count on it.

Where is this path headed?
There isn't much time left -- just 11 days max -- before the US truly defaults.  So there isn't much more room left for GOP to shift their demands, scatter-shot as they are.  John Boehner might be waiting to be pushed into the corner by Senate Republicans demanding that House Republicans forgo the Hastert Rule and let House Democrats win the vote with a minority GOP group.  Or, Boehner might actually be expecting Democrats to capitulate yet again, in which case there is no recourse but to go into default and watch the US economy grind to a halt, as Democrats probably aren't looking to share the blame as they did the last time -- fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

The Zombies won't die
As it was in the 2011 debt ceiling fight, I wrote that it was ironic that Republicans were willing to risk a default to slash spending, seeing as the results were the same: government spending as a percentage of GDP would balloon once again.

But Republicans have looked the other way as austerity failed overseas while Japan's increased spending and expansionary policies have reversed its declining prices and flat economy.  So, we have Republicans presenting a refuted and false narrative as their ultimate demands against our economic growth.

The zombies won't die.

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