David Plouffe on Meet the Press (April 10, 2011)
Steve Benen makes a great point about the WSJ article claiming the White House is open to negotiating with the GOP over the debt ceiling:
DON'T TAKE THIN ARTICLES AT FACE VALUE.... I'm a little surprised at the extent to which folks are overreacting to the Wall Street Journal article on the White House and the debt ceiling. The article is incredibly thin, cites no sources at all, and comes from a Murdoch-owned paper that doesn't exactly deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Here is the quote the WSJ used from Plouffe:
David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser, suggested Sunday in an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" that "in that process" of raising the debt ceiling "we should be able to reduce the deficit."
And here is what he actually said:
The debt ceiling is something that has to be raised every once in a while. It's something the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, has said if we didn't raise it would bring a financial disaster both in this country and around the world. Economist after economist has said it would raise interest rates, it could wreak havoc on the housing market, on the economy, it could be a catastrophic failure for the United States' economy if we didn't raise it. ... The Speaker of the House himself said we need to act like adults in this. Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, all the leaders have said we have to raise the debt limit, so we're going to. But in that process we should be able to reduce the deficit. So we should not be playing brinksmanship with the full faith in credit of the United States of America. So, of course, we're going to do that. But what we need to do at the same time, in the months ahead, is we've got to decide—and it's going to be a tough fight—how are we going to reduce the deficit, get on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory, but in a way that doesn't compromise our ability to grow the economy or create jobs?
You notice how the WSJ added some words (outside the quotes) to Plouffe's statement? In isolation and without watching the video, that might seem fair; the phrase "in that process" could easily be interpreted as referring to the process of raising the debt ceiling. But if you watch the actual video of Plouffe making his comments, it's clear that he realizes he chose his words poorly and awkwardly, so he goes on to emphasize that the debt ceiling should not be subject to the same sort of brinksmanship as a budget fight, and that the deficit reduction debate is something that will play in the months ahead, long after the debt ceiling is raised.
In this case, I think the WSJ clearly erred in its interpretation of Plouffe's remarks. Hey, mistakes happen sometimes (though this is a pretty big one). But as Steve reminds us, it's best to avoid getting too worked up when the mistakes are easy to see as this one was.
Update: Jay Carney, in today's press briefing, makes it clear there is no attempt to link long-term deficit reduction with the debt ceiling:
Q And one last one. What’s the relationship between the speech and the debt ceiling vote?
MR. CARNEY: The speech and the debt ceiling? We don’t believe there is a relationship between the two, and we don’t believe, going back to questions I had yesterday, that there should be a link between efforts to address our long-term deficit problem and debt problem and the imperative of raising the debt ceiling, which the President and all the leaders of Congress have said has to be done.
It will happen, because everyone recognizes the consequences of not doing it, which would be to throw the global economy into chaos, to halt on a dime the economic recovery that we’ve been experiencing and fought so hard to help foster. This is not an alternative. And we are confident that the Congress will vote accordingly.
In the meantime, as the President will amply demonstrate tomorrow, he wants to have this conversation about how we can get our fiscal house in order and how we can take a balanced approach towards reducing our deficit in the long term while protecting the investments which will enable us to grow in the 21st century, which in turn will help us reduce our deficit and debt.