Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said on "Face the Nation" Sunday that she is not in favor of raising the government's debt ceiling, which if not dealt with could shut down the government as early as March.
The government is authorized to borrow up to $14.3 trillion, but that limit is expected to be reached in a few months. Congress must vote to increase the borrowing ceiling before the capacity is reached, or the U.S. could be forced to default on its debt, which would shut down government operations.
Bachmann told moderator Harry Smith that at this point she would not vote for raising the ceiling.
"Congress has had a big party the last two years. They couldn't spend enough money. And now they're standing back, folding their arms, saying, oh, taunting us - ‘How are you going to go ahead and solve this big spending crisis?’” Bachmann said about the Democrats. She said that she has started a petition on her Web site urging voters to tell their representatives to oppose raising the debt ceiling.
Republican Representative-elect Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania went further.
"Raising the debt ceiling to me is absolutely irresponsible. We've been spending money for so long that we don't have and keep saying, 'Well, it's OK, we'll just raise taxes, we'll find it somewhere,'" Kelly said.
Rep. Andrew Weiner, D-N.Y., rebuked Kelly and Bachmann for their positions.
"The first thing the Republicans did when they took back the House the last time is they drove the government to a shutdown," Weiner said. "I guess from what I've heard Michele say and you say, that's what's going to happen again."
Bachmann accused Weiner of maligning the Republicans: "You've got it exactly wrong. That is not what we're looking to do. You're stating it falsely. We are not looking to go shut the government down. No one benefits. But at the same time we're not looking at wanting to continually raise the debt ceiling. That's something that the Democrats want to do," she said.
"I don't know what you call it, but that's shutting down the government," Weiner retorted.
It is. And Dems have a winning issue here and are beginning to push it, like Rep. Weiner there and inthis clip with White House econ point man Austan Goolsbee.
President Obama's top economic advisor, Austan Goolsbee, warned today against "playing chicken" with raising the country's debt ceiling, saying it would cause "a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008."
"This is not a game. The debt ceiling is not something to toy with," said Goolsbee, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, in an exclusive interview on "This Week."
"If we hit the debt ceiling, that's ... essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history," he said. "The impact on the economy would be catastrophic."
As I have said two months ago, there's no way corporate America is going to risk the bond market going up in flames for the sake of the Tea Party making a point. They will be made to heel on this and many more issues, and the Tea Party is going to find out just how little power they truly have.
Which is funny, because that's what the Republicans said about progressives in 2006, I know. Believe me, the parallels are obnoxious...but they are there.
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