Top Republican Walks Back Government Shutdown Threat

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

SAHIL KAPUR JANUARY 18, 2013, 11:08 AM


The Senate’s No. 2 Republican is walking back his threat to use the debt ceiling and other fiscal deadlines to force President Obama to accede to deep spending cuts.

“We will raise the debt ceiling. We’re not going to default on our debt,” Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle editorial board published Thursday. “I will tell you unequivocally, we’re not going to default.”

That’s a dramatic change in tone from just two weeks ago, when Cornyn wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle pointedly threatening not to raise the debt limit or fund the government unless Obama agrees to scale back Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“Republicans are more determined than ever to implement the spending cuts and structural entitlement reforms that are needed to secure the long-term fiscal integrity of our country,” he wrote. “The coming deadlines will be the next flashpoints in our ongoing fight to bring fiscal sanity to Washington. It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain. President Obama needs to take note of this reality and put forward a plan to avoid it immediately.”

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Read more: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/01/john-cornyn-walks-back-dafault-shutdown-threat.php?ref=fpa

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Link to Houston Chronicle interview:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Cornyn-Congress-will-not-allow-default-4203978.php

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm sure they've been hearing from their owners on Wall Street.

[Berlum]

2. Freaking flip-flopping RepubliWankers have $ as their "moral center"

[Lil Missy]

3. I wonder what convinced them to change course?

[Flashmann]

5. I wonder what convinced them to change course?

The corporate overlords who own the goopers body and soul.......The ones who'll spend a dollar to preserve a dime,see that they might lose the dime....

[Stuart G]

6. I wonder what convinced them to change course?

Koch Bros???Wall Street?? who...whoo....whooo ..?????

[Flashmann]

7. Koch Bros???Wall Street?? who...whoo....whooo ..?????

I'd think the whole motley crowd......Some,I think,have their own personal pet thugs.......Others contribute to a joint ownership.......

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. I'm not particularly worried about the Senate (but it's good to know that cracks are forming)

The House leadership has to deal with serious teabagger bloodlust and probably will have to wait until practically the last moment to raise the debt ceiling (w/Democratic votes to boot)

[groundloop]

8. True, but most House repubs answer to the same corporate overlords

I'd expect that there will definitely be some serious teabagger sentiment to shut down the government, but between the House Democrats and non-teabagger House repubs I'm guessing the teabaggers will be outnumbered.

I'm rather liking how this has played out, btw. Many Senate and House repubs have obviously already heard from their corporate masters and are scurrying around with large amounts of egg on their faces.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

11. The teabaggers answer to NO ONE!

The Republicans, in their zeal to defeat President Obama, embraced the loonies and fringe and are now paying the price for their lack of vision!

[Javaman]

9. When they willfully paint themselves into a corner, they leave themselves little to no options.

but then again, that's the repukes for you. They look at everything as if it were a nail.

[nick of time]

10. The repukes blinked again.

They're reading the same polls that Pres. Obama is reading and they realize that would be a hughly unpopular stance.
I love this Pres. for not backing down to the Teahadists.

[pansypoo53219]

12. maybe newt explained it isn't as swell as they think.