The Morning Plum: Boehner blinks

By Greg Sargent, Published: October 10 at 9:00 am

The House GOP game on the debt limit has long been painfully obvious for anyone who cared to pay any attention to the ruse at its core. GOP leaders insist Dems must give them whatever they demand in exchange for averting economic catastrophe — without saying whether they will actually allow default in the end. This “strategic ambiguity” has allowed Republicans to claim the debt limit as leverage while shielding themselves from charges that they are recklessly putting the economy at risk to get their way. Today brings more confirmation that, No, John Boehner will not actually allow default in the end.

Multiple reports this morning tell us that the House GOP is set to roll out yet another strategy. They appear ready to support a “clean” six week debt limit hike, while keeping the government shut down and using that as their leverage to keep up the fight against Obamacare. Byron York has this key tidbit from a private meeting, revealing why GOP leaders are prepared to take the debt limit off the table:

At the meeting, Boehner pointed to the events of September 2008, when the economy was in free-fall and lawmakers first considered TARP, to illustrate the risk of pushing past the debt limit. Back then, the House at first rejected the hastily-conceived TARP proposal, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 700 points. Now, with the House facing a debt limit standoff that could result in default, the Speaker doesn’t want a replay of unhappy events. “Boehner said it’s too hot,” said the House Republican of the debt fight. “He doesn’t want to go there.”

Right, so Boehner is not prepared to allow default in the end. But what happens after this clean debt limit hike? Per the Wall Street Journal, House Republicans want to set up talks that would use the next debt limit deadline as leverage:

full article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/10/10/the-morning-plum-boehner-blinks/