House GOP Throws Out Entire Summer Of Debt Ceiling Negotiations In Less Than 10 Minutes

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/18/486742/house-gop-throws-out-entire-summer-of-debt-ceiling-negotiations-in-less-than-10-minutes/

House GOP Throws Out Entire Summer Of Debt Ceiling Negotiations In Less Than 10 Minutes

By Travis Waldron on May 18, 2012 at 11:45 am


Last August, debt ceiling negotiations between House Republicans and Senate Democrats came to an end when President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act, a not-so-grand bargain that created a legislative super committee tasked with finding spending cuts to offset the debt ceiling increase. If the super committee failed, automatic cuts from the defense budget and discretionary spending levels would offset the cost.

The deal was an end to three tumultuous months of wrangling over the debt ceiling that brought the government to the brink of default and, thanks to the GOP’s intransigence on new tax revenues, led to the first credit downgrade in the nation’s history. House Republicans have repeatedly threatened to renege on the deal, and this morning, they made it official, adding an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that officially replaced spending cuts from the defense sequestration with cuts from the House reconciliation package.

In less than 10 minutes, the House officially unwound a budget deal that took an entire summer to craft, the New York Times’ Jonathan Weisman reports:

Without discussion, the House just voted to scrap the defense sequester, 220-201. 21 Republicans voted no. Oh well, there goes that.

— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) May 18, 2012

After rendering last year’s negotiations completely pointless, House Republicans are poised to pull the exact same charade this year. Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) “will insist that any increase in the debt limit be accompanied by spending ‘cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase,’” putting the economic recovery in jeopardy once again. Last year, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the spending cuts Republicans required to raise the debt ceiling cost the economy 1.8 million jobs. And yet the GOP insists on recreating the same disastrous scenario all over again.

[WI_DEM]

1. so it's ok for them to break agreements?

God help this country if Obama loses in November.

[coalition_unwilling]

8. 25-30% U3 unemployment rate, easily. Misery and suffering at

1931-32 levels.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

15. And hopefully a repeat of what got us The New Deal...

[madokie]

2. With boner leading the pack what else could one expect

How he even gets elected to represent the people of his district is beyond me. Must be a bunch of crybabies off their meds

[Worried senior]

3. I severly hate these people

I don't think there is one worthwhile repub out there at all.

[DCKit]

5. Not fair when 21 Repubs voted "No".

But yeah, their willingness to go back on an agreement doesn't reflect well on the majority. We can't trust them to do the right thing under any circumstance.

[Salviati]

6. Their word is meaningless

how can you negotiate with people in good faith, when you cant trust them to follow through on their agreements? This is what I want to be hearing from Democrats up and down the board, Republicans are untrustworthy, and their word is worthless.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. I sure hope each one of us repeats that the GOP can't be trusted to honor

any agreement or to put the country before their ideology to everyone we meet.

[discopants]

7. GOP strategy = tank the recovery for a Romney victory

Hurting our credit rating will only mean they will blame Obama for it. People are that stupid and might believe it, or maybe just enough to influence the election. The GOP wants to give Romney a campaign meme that they think will give him an advantage.

Instead they'll put a fucking anchor on him.

Obama will have a golden opportunity this time around, since he's on the campaign trail every single day and will drag Boner, Cantor, McConnell and Romney's asses through the coals. I believe the Obama of summer of 2012 will be vastly different than the Obama of summer 2011 on the debt ceiling debate.

[AverageJoe90]

14. Yeah, Obama's really been stepping up to the plate over the past couple of years.

Hopefully, he can really kick some ass. If we don't stop the GOP we very well could see suffering at 1932-33 levels as someone else pointed out on here.

[gratuitous]

9. Remember when this deal was done? Boehner crowed that he got 98% of what he wanted

So why the hell wouldn't he and his den of thieves come back for another helping this year? If you don't like it, tough. It's all about, duh, winning.

[denverbill]

10. I'm sure the spineless Dems in the Senate will play along.

There are always 10 Democrats will to vote with Republicans on crap like this.

I actually think Obama would veto it though and demand they send him a bill that increases taxes to match any cuts. That's what the Senate should do as well.

[surrealAmerican]

11. Proving, yet again, that ...

... there is no point in negotiating with these people.

Boehner is NOT a "man of his word": his word, and those of his party mates, is worthless.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. And 2 Democrats voted with the Republican majority

just to be douchebags: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2012/roll281.xml

Garamendi and McIntyre, FWIW.

[derby378]

13. It's official - they want the black guy out of office

And naturally, they don't give a damn that Obama's half-white.

Music for Governments to Default By