House Speaker John Boehner has introduced two bills that would raise the nation’s debt ceiling and end the current default crisis. The first, known as “Cut, Cap and Balance,” was tabled by Senate Democrats without an up-or-down vote. The second, Boehner’s plan to cut more than $900 billion in federal spending and raise the debt ceiling by a slightly smaller amount, could face a similar fate if it first passes the House.
For the Tea Party Republicans who make up a significant part of the House GOP caucus, Boehner’s proposal is a significant retreat from “Cut, Cap and Balance.” Those who support the Boehner proposal, which is formally known as the Budget Control Act, consider it a major compromise — something they are backing only after being convinced that their first choice could never pass the Senate.
Throughout the debt dispute, President Obama has talked a lot about compromise. In his speech to the nation Monday, he used the word six times, saying America “has always been a grand experiment in compromise” but that in Washington lately, “compromise has become a dirty word.” Obama’s appearance at a University of Maryland town hall a few days before was a virtual seminar on compromise.
While Obama preaches the virtues of compromise, his Democratic allies and surrogates are bashing Republicans for rejecting what the White House characterizes as earnest, good-faith efforts to find common ground. “I hope that Speaker Boehner and [Minority] Leader McConnell will reconsider their intransigence,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said a few days ago. “Their unwillingness to compromise is pushing us to the brink of a default.” (At the same time, Reid has been issuing absolute, inflexible statements like, “I will not support any short-term agreement.”)
But the fact is, the Republicans who admitted defeat on “Cut, Cap and Balance” showed a unmistakable willingness to compromise. “The president has asked us to compromise,” House Minority Leader Eric Cantor said Thursday afternoon. “We have compromised.”
What about Obama? His compromises, if any, are more difficult to discern because the White House has been militantly secretive about its position. In the past few days, in fact, White House spokesman Jay Carney has gotten downright testy whenever reporters point out that Obama has never released a debt-ceiling plan, making it impossible to know exactly where he stands, and therefore whether he has compromised on any of his original positions.
“The idea that there is not an Obama plan is point No. 1 on the talking points issued by the Republican Party,” Carney said Tuesday.
“It’s not a talking point,” responded Ed Henry, Fox News’ White House correspondent. “That’s unfair. Where is the plan?”
Carney said the president had “put forward in detail his principles” in recent speeches.
“Principles, right,” Henry said. “That’s not a plan.”
“Why not put [Obama’s plan] on paper, give it to the Congressional Budget Office … and have a senator introduce it as an actual bill?” Henry asked the next day. Carney gave no answer.
Republican concerns about the White House’s unwillingness to compromise — and its seriousness — became more pronounced on Thursday, when top White House aides argued that the Budget Control Act, if passed, would ruin the Christmas holiday for millions of Americans. “What the House Republican plan would do is have this whole debt ceiling spectacle, the three-ring circus the president talked about Monday, repeated again just a few months from now over the holidays,” top adviser David Plouffe said on MSNBC. “You know, the debt ceiling debate would ruin Christmas. It makes no sense. You would have this hanging over the country at one of the most economically important periods in our country around the holiday season.”
Later in the day, Carney repeated that rationale, as did other White House officials.
In response, an exasperated Boehner released a statement headlined “Yes, David, There Will Be a Christmas.” The speaker reassured Plouffe that the Budget Control Act would increase the debt limit until next year, well beyond Christmas. “White House advisers can rest easy, and no one has to put their holiday plans on hold,” Boehner said.
It would have been funny had it not raised unhappy memories for some senior Republicans. Back in December 1994, after the GOP won a huge victory in midterm elections, Newsweek published a cover story headlined “How the
Gingrich Stole Christmas,” accusing Republicans of plotting to ruin just about every aspect of American life. Time called Gingrich “Uncle Scrooge.” The White House seemed to be channeling the magazines’ unseriousness.
Republican lawmakers are frustrated about a lot of things these days. Being unfairly accused of refusing to compromise is probably not at the top of the list, but it’s giving the GOP a new lesson — as if any were needed — of how the White House fights.
Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blogposts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.
