The McConnell Debt Proposal Scoreboard (Naional Review) --BOOM!

[underpants]

Here’s the scoreboard so far:

Pro: Fred Barnes, Jennifer Rubin, John Podhoretz, Allahpundit, Wall Street Journal

Con: Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson, Heritage Action For America, Newt Gingrich, Philip Klein, Brent Bozell, Concerned Women for America, Americans for Prosperity, Let Freedom Ring!, FreedomWorks, Jim Jordan (R., Ohio)

UPDATE: Americans for Tax Reform has put out a statement denying that Grover Norquist endorsed the McConnell plan:

Today, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist did not endorse any particular debt limit contingency plan, as has been alleged. He did endorse the objective of Leader McConnell’s effort to force the President to put his spending plan in writing.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/271730/mcconnell-debt-proposal-scoreboard-charlie-cooke

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[creeksneakers2]

1. Norquist and the GOP desperately want Obama to sign something

The GOP is desperate for a way out because they've been bluffing since the beginning. They've never had the votes to pass what they are advocating.

According to Fox and others ( I know Fox is unreliable but I think they have inside access here) there are 80 to 120 members of the house GOP who won't vote for a debt ceiling increase under any circumstances. I figure out of those who are left there must be some who will run away from voting for entitlement cuts.

The GOP is desperate for a way out because they've been bluffing since the beginning. They've never had the votes to pass what they are advocating.

According to Fox and others ( I know Fox is unreliable but I think they have inside access here) there are 80 to 120 members of the house GOP who won't vote for a debt ceiling increase under any circumstances. I figure out of those who are left there must be some who will run away from voting for entitlement cuts.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/07/11/debt-ceili...

The GOP was in a jam with their own people to begin with and their only way out was to get Obama to sign on to a plan to provide cover for their members voting against entitlements. Their strategy all along was to get Obama to cave by bluffing.

What to do about this? Obama has to call the bluff and expose the GOP. He needs to insist that the house Republicans pass their own plan to move the legislative process along.

If Boehner can't pass his own plan, he'd have to explain why he's going to put the whole country into a disaster for a plan even his own party doesn't support. He'd have to explain why he's been bluffing all this time and causing all this trouble.

Even if the GOP can pass its plan, there would still be the Senate and Obama's veto to intervene. And the GOP members would be stuck going into the next election with their base furious because they passed a debt increase at all, and the rest of the public furious because they voted to cut entitlements.

No matter what they do, its a lose/lose for the GOP if Obama forces them to vote. Obama could leave one way out for them, to supply half the votes needed to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling.

Holding talks, or entertaining the latest GOP dodge attempt just encourages the GOP to think they can still get away with this.

The GOP was in a jam with their own people to begin with and their only way out was to get Obama to sign on to a plan to provide cover for their members voting against entitlements. Their strategy all along was to get Obama to cave by bluffing.

What to do about this? Obama has to call the bluff and expose the GOP. He needs to insist that the house Republicans pass their own plan to move the legislative process along.

If Boehner can't pass his own plan, he'd have to explain why he's going to put the whole country into a disaster for a plan even his own party doesn't support. He'd have to explain why he's been bluffing all this time and causing all this trouble.

Even if the GOP can pass its plan, there would still be the Senate and Obama's veto to intervene. And the GOP members would be stuck going into the next election with their base furious because they passed a debt increase at all, and the rest of the public furious because they voted to cut entitlements.

No matter what they do, its a lose/lose for the GOP if Obama forces them to vote. Obama could leave one way out for them, to supply half the votes needed to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling.

Holding talks, or entertaining the latest GOP dodge attempt just encourages the GOP to think they can still get away with this.