Boehner's Plan Is Better Than Nothing
Politics: President Obama may not have a plan for resolving the debt crisis, but he definitely has a goal — to shift blame for the lousy economy onto Republicans' shoulders. Above all else, the GOP must not let that happen.
When House Speaker John Boehner released his latest plan to cut spending in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, attacks from Obama and his fellow Democrats were to be expected.
The attacks from the GOP side, however, are short-sighted at best. They risk giving Obama what he wants more than anything — a way to weasel out of responsibility for the economic mess his policies have produced.
It's true Boehner's plan falls short of what's needed to get spending and debt under control. The Congressional Budget Office says it would trim $22 billion next year and $917 billion over the next decade. That's in exchange for raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion, but that's still a pittance compared with the added debt expected.
The fact that Boehner's plan relies on a special committee to develop an as-yet-unspecified bigger debt reduction package next year, when the debt ceiling would have to be raised again, is also a bit disconcerting.
Republicans are correct to also point out that Obama has completely manufactured this crisis. He's imposed an artificial Aug. 2 deadline — a date that's been pushed back several times already this year and that some experts now say could be pushed back another week, or possibly a month.
Also true is the fact that Obama's constant warnings about Armageddon are shameless scaremongering. Even if the debt ceiling isn't raised immediately, the government would have no problem meeting its obligations to debt holders.
In June, it took in $256 billion from taxes and fees, according to the monthly Treasury report, enough to cover the monthly cost of interest on the debt, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, Defense and Homeland Security, with $19 billion to spare.
And it's clear Obama never had any intention of putting forward a concrete plan of his own, which White House spokesman Jay Carney finally admitted on Tuesday. "When you put forward a position," he said, "it becomes charged politically and your chances of actually getting an agreement diminish significantly."
Yes. All this is true. But there's a more immediate concern Republicans must keep in mind as the final act of the current debt debate plays out.
As Obama's poll numbers continue to sag, his hopes for re-election increasingly depend on his ability to convince voters that he had nothing to do with the lousy economy. And if the GOP blows the current debt standoff, Obama will be free to blame any bad economic news going forward on Republican intransigence.
Republicans can't let themselves fall into this trap. Obama, and Obama alone, is responsible for the fact that two years after the recession ended, the unemployment rate is above 9%, growth is stagnant, inflation is rising, and federal spending and debt are exploding.
If keeping that message clear in the public's mind means giving just a little in the current debt fight, so be it. Better to lose a skirmish than the war.