Behind all of the 'scandal' smoke, republicans are promoting a stale and destructive agenda
from Greg Sargent at WaPo: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/the-morning-plum-the-other-story-behind-the-gops-scandal-triumphalism/
____ Republicans (and some news organizations) are in full scandal-mania mode today, with widespread rejoicing on the right over all the storylines that are all but certain to eventually bring down the president. And it’s true that the IRS and Associated Press stories are both serious business and require a full accounting.
At the same time, however, Republicans are set to vote today for the 37th time to repeal Obamacare, and House conservatives are set to demand a balanced budget in 10 years in exchange for any debt limit hike
. . . the GOP leadership has already made it clear that Republicans are not prepared to allow default — it caved on the debt ceiling last spring, and John Boehner has openly acknowledged that he has no intention of putting the “full faith and credit of the federal government” at risk.” So it’s unclear how the debt limit can be used as leverage to extract these spending cuts. But conservatives appear insistent on using the threat of economic calamity to demand cuts that would balance the budget in 10 years — something that would essentially wipe away large swaths of the federal government. That isn’t going to happen, and it remains unclear how the House GOP leadership will get conservatives to Yes on raising the debt limit, which means another messy governing-by-crisis showdown that could further damage the GOP.
Meanwhile, with the House GOP set to vote yet again to repeal Obamacare (for the 37th time) . . . These scandals are providing a helpful distraction from all these looming issues, to be sure, and it’s certainly possible the scandals will grow more serious over time.
On the other hand, it’s also possible that they won’t have the staying power Republicans seem to believe they will. If not, later in the summer we may find that the “narrative” is this: Republicans have killed immigration reform; they continue to tilt at Obamacare repeal windmills without offering any kind of health reform alternative; and are mired in discord over whether to stage another debt limit hostage crisis. Maybe, just maybe, all the scandal triumphalism is a bit premature.
read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/05/15/the-morning-plum-the-other-story-behind-the-gops-scandal-triumphalism/
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