After a year of being considered by some of his most ardent supporters to be the Capitulator in Chief after the Health Care Reform passed "without" a Public Option (even though it has something just as good that no one ever talks about) and how signed the temporary extension of the Bush Cuts during the Lame-Duck session.
We now seem to be dealing with a whole new Obama, one who fully realizes that anything he's is for - the Republicans are immediately against and how to work that to the benefit of his long term goals.
There may be a ton of posturing and jockeying for position in the next few days with House Republican setting up Stage Votes for a Balance Budget Amendment that will never see the light of day.
Scores of House Republicans say they won't vote to raise the debt limit unless a Constitutional balanced budget amendment has been sent off to the states for ratification. And so whatever Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and other Congressional leaders decide about the real path ahead, he'll hold votes next week on a major spending cut and spending cap plan that includes a hike in the debt ceiling, and, separately, on a balanced budget amendment. The latter would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate and, in its current form, stands little chance of passing either chamber.
The votes themselves will put some political pressure on Democrats to support the nominally popular balanced budget amendment, and will allow Republicans to claim they voted to raise the debt limit in the event that the government runs out of borrowing authority. But the so-called "cut, cap, and balance" approach is dead on arrival in the Senate.
At a Friday press conference after a meeting with the GOP caucus, Boehner let slip, subtly, that the plan will go nowhere.
You couldn't find a more apt correlation for literally fiddling while our economy burns if you tried. Rather than genuine working to put together a deal that has a chance of passing the Senate and being signed by the President, Boehner and the House Republicans are going to deliberately waste time with a futile measure that will NEVER Pass the Senate or be signed - simply so they can deflect the blame for any default onto the President and Democrats.
The big hole in their "We need an Amendment to Balance the Budget" argument is that just a decade ago - We had a Balanced Budget.
Another hole is that the CBO has stated that going forward our Revenues will Match our Spending (not counting Interest on the Debt) if we go forward without changing any current laws, as opposed to extending the Bush Tax Cuts permanently which (as shown below) never lets us reach balance.
The proof that we can do this again, is simply the fact that we did it before - and we did it be raising taxes. All we need to do now is just what we did last time - go back to the Clinton Tax Rates.
In order to keep his campaign promise not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000 - so either additional revenues need to be generated to fill that hole, additional cuts need to made - or both.
So far Obama has shown that he does have a Steel Spine while the Republicans are in disarray and panic with these various CYA schemes. He's played them like a cheap violin.
In the end, I think, Lawrence is correct - again, because he's usually correct - and there will be a clean debt ceiling bill that won't cut much or add much in tax increases. Current Law will carry forward and the deficit will shrink all on it's own as the economy slowly and gradually recovers.
By 2012, the CBO estimates unemployment will be down to 7% while the deficit will but cut in half, all of our troops will be back from Iraq, and significant numbers out of Afghanistan virtually guaranteeing an Obama re-election and possibly a return of the Congress to the Democrats.
As former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers stated today on CNN, what we really need to drive this economy forward, is Demand. Businesses don't grow if they don't have customers, and people can't be customers if they don't have any money to spend.
Obama knows this is the case, and I'm sure the Republicans know it too - even while they pretend otherwise. That's why they are behaving increasingly crazy and he is holding his ground. He has the fact, all they have are Heritage Fed Fantasies.
Vyan