By Dana Milbank
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3788388/default-caucus-looks-crazier-daily.htmlPublished: Sunday, Jul. 24, 2011
Twenty Republican lawmakers crowded the Senate TV studio last week to issue a threat: Meet their demands, or they will force the United States to default.
The only way to prevent the catastrophe, these tea party faithful said, was for the Senate to pass, and the president to sign, their plan permanently capping spending at levels last seen in 1966, before Medicare made the nation soft.
"We want to make very clear: This is not just the best plan on the table for addressing the debt limit – this is the only plan," said first-term Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, vowing that "we're otherwise going to be blowing past the debt-limit" deadline.
"We have a solution," said Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina. "It's the only one that can be passed before the Aug. 2 deadline."
This is the language of gangster films: Do as we say – or the girl gets it.
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According to negotiation "game theory," the Default Caucus has boosted Republicans' leverage.
"Your hand is greatly strengthened if you can convince the other side that you're crazy," said James Miller, an economist at Smith College. In the current game of chicken, they've enabled House Speaker John Boehner to tell the president: The tea party has locked our steering wheel and we can't swerve – so you have to.
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The Default Caucus has dismissed all compromises. Obama and Boehner's "Grand Bargain"? The "Gang of Six" proposal? Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's plan? No, nay, never. Even Tom Coburn's plan to shave deficits by $9 trillion was disparaged as a "$1 trillion tax hike."
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