Well then, say some Republicans, well then, maybe we’ll just let sequestration take place. So what if we cut defense spending by $50 billion this year? Maybe we’ll just let that happen! Maybe! Maybe! Or, maybe, we’ll just shut down the whole damn government in March. That could happen! It definitely could!
Well, maybe Republicans will let sequestration happen for a day, or shut the government down for an hour. I’m more interested in the debt ceiling. When the last increase went through in August 2011, with (supposedly) an agreement to cut a dollar of spending for each dollar of increase in the debt limit, Republicans gleefully announced that a new era in kick-ass conservatism had arrived. This was just the beginning!
Except that it wasn’t. So what happened? My guess is that what didn’t happen in 2011 happened in 2013. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner was confident way back when that his Wall Street buddies would come riding to Obama’s rescue, talking sense into the heads of the Tea Party freaks who were running things on the Republican side of the aisle. The Wall Street crowd was a little pissed at the President—more than a little, actually—for not cutting entitlements the way he was supposed to, and for calling them fat cats. The Republicans were talking tax cuts for rich folks and slashing government red tape and regulation, the kind of talk that Wall Street likes to hear. Let the Republicans slap Obama around for a while. Come 2012, we’ll have a new President, who will do things our way.
Of course, that didn’t happen. The Republicans got beat, but good, in 2012. The plutocrats noticed, and they talked to the talking heads, who started talking the talk: leave the damn debt limit alone!
I don’t know how weak the Republicans are these days, but they look pretty weak. They all talk about how much they want to cut government spending, but Romney ran on a platform that called for increasing the defense budget by a third, leaving Medicare untouched for a decade and leaving Social Security untouched period. Republicans would be happy to cut food stamps, welfare, and foreign aid to the bone, but after that they’re at a loss. Even Medicaid is largely a middle-class program (spending for nursing homes) but you have to know a lot about the program to know that. Republicans rode the Tea Party boom and now they’re riding the Tea Party bust. My own feeling is that ultimately enough House Republicans will accept whatever deal Boehner gives them (and Boehner will give the House whatever Wall Street gives him), just because a real revolt against Boehner would destroy the party, and parties generally don’t destroy themselves. But if you’re a Republican, it isn’t going to be pretty.
