House rejects Republican debt limit ploy, Chamber calls GOP bill a 'joke'

[ProSense]

House rejects Republican debt limit ploy, Chamber calls GOP bill a 'joke'

by Jed Lewison

The House just now overwhelmingly rejected a politically-motivated measure offered by House GOP leadership to unconditionally extend the debt limit. The final vote was 97 to 318, with all 97 votes in favor of the debt limit increase coming from Democrats.

As Nancy Pelosi argued in a speech before the vote, we do need to raise the debt limit, and we need to do it without getting blackmailed by Republicans into accepting draconian cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs, but today's vote was nothing more than an attempt by Republicans to score political points and should not be taken seriously.

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Republicans had hoped their legislation would embarrass Democrats while demonstrating their willingness to force the United States into default on its fiscal obligations, but because the legislation included a partisan attack blaming President Obama for the debt accrued under President Bush and because Republicans privately assured their corporate backers that the vote was a charade, nobody is taking the vote seriously. For example:

And for all the talk of economic crisis should Congress fail to raise the debt ceiling by August, the financial markets are likely to yawn at this vote — if only because Republican leaders have privately assured Wall Street executives that this is a show intended to make the point to Mr. Obama that an increase cannot pass absent his agreement to rein in domestic programs.

“Wall Street is in on the joke,” said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Actually, however, the joke is going to be on Josten and and the Chamber of Commerce if they can't figure out a way to talk Republicans off the ledge.

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