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The Democrats “Capitulate Utterly” on Debt Ceiling Debate?

By Mark Hemingway
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While there are a lot of specifics that have yet to emerge, the current deal being offered by Harry Reid in the debt ceiling debate — $2.7 trillion in cuts and now new taxes or revenue — is surprising. (Republican leaders are holding a press conference at 4 p.m. Perhaps the state of play will become clearer then.) As you might imagine, the left-of-center reaction to this deal is one of dismay.

Here’s Talking Points Memo: “Dems Capitulate On Taxes — A GOP Victory And The Game Isn’t Even Over.” And here’s The Atlantic’s Joshua Green writing about the deal:

Last week, I predicted that the final deal would be $1.5-$2 trillion in cuts, no revenue and a stern lecture from President Obama. That was based on my belief that Republicans would not yield on taxes, and Democrats, unwilling to risk the economic damage from a default, would meekly agree to the cuts devised during the Biden negotiations. Such a deal wouldn’t quite have met the Republican demand for $2.4 trillion–but I figured Republicans would not choose default over $1.5 trillion in cuts and no new taxes. In hindsight, I underestimated the Democrats’ willingness to keep making concessions (in fairness, their capacity to do so seems practically limitless). …
But that shouldn’t mask the larger point here, which is that the Democrats have capitulated utterly to Republican demands. Recall that last Tuesday, the bipartisan Gang of Six proposal included $2 trillion of revenue increases. Now, having offered to give this up, Democrats are sure to get no revenue.

I’m not sure this is a toatl victory for the GOP here — as Green explains, a large part of Reid’s proposed savings involve accounting gimmickry with regard to war spending.

Still, the GOP could do a lot worse than this deal, and if it were to happen it would likely be spun in the long-term as a leadership failure by the president. Which raises two questions: 1) Is the fact that the left views this deal as an abject surrender going to harm the deal’s chances of going through? and 2) Is this Harry Reid throwing Obama under the bus?

Word is that the president rejected a bipartisan deal over the weekend:

“As of Saturday afternoon, I had no doubt that a solution was at hand,” McConnell said.  “The responsible path forward was clear to everyone — a plan that avoided default and required additional savings before any further increase in the debt ceiling.  Leaders from both parties agreed that this was the right path forward legislatively.  The only thing to do at that point was to present this bipartisan solution to the president.  And what was the president’s  response?  Well, unfortunately to demand the largest single debt limit increase in history.”

If that’s the case, it’s entirely possible that congressional Democrats are quietly exasperated by the President’s leadership here and want this over with. And Democratic congressional fortunes — especially in the Senate, where a number of Dems are up for reelection in states that have tilted right in recent years — might improve by agreeing to a debt deal that’s more right-of-center on taxes. Friday’s angry press conference, fears of a reaction from the financial markets, and the weekend rejection of a bipartisan might have made the president’s own caucus more than eager to give in to the GOP.

 

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