As a Potential Default Approaches, Eric Cantor Is Starting to Crack

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) declared Thursday that Senate Democrats would be responsible for a national default if they defeat a House plan to raise the debt limit.

Cantor starkly laid out the options: Either the Senate passes the House debt-limit legislation or the nation will likely default.

“There are two choices left,” Cantor said. “When we send this bill over, this compromise piece of legislation, (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can take that up, pass it, send it to the White House. We can avoid the potential consequences of going past Aug. 2 and get on with the business of this country, or it will be on Harry Reid to bear the consequences of economic damage, and I don’t want to see that.”

'Default' warnings are just a scare tactic. Many of the Republicans who oppose lifting the debt limit have dismissed as phony the administration's warnings that failing to raise the limit will force the nation to default on its debts. Freshman Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., turned himself into a Tea Party hero when he put a videotape of himself on YouTube in which he says, "President Obama, quit lying!"

It's true that the Treasury Department could probably avoid missing any interest payments on the national debt by making those payments the top priority for federal spending. Even with no more borrowing authority, Treasury would continue to collect more than enough tax revenue to cover debt interest and some of the nation's other bills.

But a study by the respected Bipartisan Policy Center concluded that if the debt limit is not raised, Treasury will have to reduce federal spending by about 44%, forcing enormous, rapid cuts. It might be technically possible to keep paying bondholders in Beijing and Brussels while delaying or stopping some payments to American seniors, troops or businesses. But that wouldn't be politically sustainable for long once voters saw what was going on. There would be a default, and those who deny the inevitability are also in denial about the dire consequences, which takes us to our next myth.