As some here have already noted, in speaking with right wing talk radio host Laura Ingraham, Sen. McConnell seems to connect the debt issue with Obama's re-election:
I refuse to help Barack Obama get reelected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy.
It is brief, but Mitch's statement gives us an opportunity to push the GOP hard, in ways that will hurt. When I heard it reported this morning on the radio, I literally yelled. I'll explain a bit more about why and how Democrats can use this below the fold.
First of all, let's look at that quote again, but I want to add some bold:
I refuse to help Barack Obama get reelected by marching Republicans into a position where we have co-ownership of a bad economy.
First of all, the GOP, whether they admit it or not, already have "co-ownership" of the economy. And they have that "co-ownership" for multiple reasons but two very large ones: (1) the debt itself is largely because of GOP policies, especially the Bush tax cuts, the two unfunded wars Bush engaged in, the unfunded Medicare drug benefit passed to help Bush get re-elected, and the costs of the bail-out and stimulus required to try and address the Bush economic debacle; (2) since taking control of the House, the GOP has done nothing to address the national economic woes, especially in terms of the job creation they promised.
But, McConnell's statement also reveals the very heart of their vulnerability and something we need to point out, over and over (" . . . you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."): ALL AMERICANS ARE IN THIS "BAD ECONOMY" TOGETHER, IT IS NOT A MATTER OF HELPING OBAMA GET REELECTED BUT A MATTER OF ADDRESSING PROBLEMS - PROBLEMS YOUR PARTY HELPED CREATE.
But McConnell and the GOP are seemingly more worried about "helping Obama get reelected" than they are about the economy. They whipped up their base of the uninformed with the idea that government spending is the problem and that the revenue side is irrelevant. (Ezra Klein makes some observations on this canard.) They have sold these same uninformed people on the idea that a default on the debt will not have the consequences that sane people are warning about. And now, they must answer to that Obama-hating base . . . and God forbid they do something that might help Obama!
What would default on the debt ceiling mean, Sen. McConnell? Well, the credit rating for the US would go way down, which would mean any borrowing we need to do would be at higher interest rates. What this would mean is that our existing debt payments would be higher if we needed to refinance (meaning less money for even things like defense).
As Robert Reich recently pointed out, Social Security is not in debt (and thus not part of any debt crisis) - it is fully funded for at least 27 years. The problem is that the government has borrowed from the system (yes, part of the current debt is owed to the Social Security system) - so defaulting on the debt could mean no money for SS recipients.
And who really holds that debt in our "bad economy," Mitch? Mostly Americans is the answer. Yes, China holds a little less than 10% of our debt, but the Social Security Trust Fund alone holds nearly 18%. And when you add in the federal debt held by the Federal Reserve banks, pension funds (both public and private), mutual funds, insurance companies, state and local governments, savings bond holders, commercial banks and credit unions, and intergovernmental loans - well, it becomes clear that a default on the debt means that roughly 2/3 of whatever the consequences may be will effect Americans and the economy.
But the GOP does not feel that as Americans they have "co-ownership" of this bad economy? Do they hate America because it elected Barack Obama or do they just hate the American debt they created with their tax cuts, wars and deregulation so much they would turn their backs on their responsibility as elected representatives to address the "bad economy" they truly co-own?
If GOP Congresscritters consider themselves to be Americans, they have co-ownership of the bad economy and they need to start acting like it. [Repeat as often as necessary.]