No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 7

Yesterday I mentioned John Boehner had been dragged before his Wall Street masters to explain why Republicans were risking the bond markets' bottom line in order to play politics.   But Orange Julius was entirely unrepentant, demanding trillions in immediate cuts in this year's budget, or else the gun to the country's head goes off.

House Speaker John A. Boehner said Monday that Republicans wanted trillions in budget cuts in exchange for their vote to increase the nation's borrowing limit and avoid default, adopting a hard line on the party's position in a speech before major players on Wall Street.

Boehner told the Economic Club of New York that his party wanted specific spending cuts — not future targets that would trigger spending reductions or revenue increases, as President Obama has proposed.

Laying down a marker on the eve of new budget negotiations, the Ohio Republican also said he wanted the amount of the cuts to exceed any increase in the nation's borrowing limit, a demand that probably would mean new spending reductions of $2 trillion or more — many times higher than the $38 billion in cuts approved last month in the 2011 budget.

"It's true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and reform the budget process," Boehner said.

His address before the New York audience came as Obama called lawmakers to the White House for several days of talks this week over raising the nation's $14.3-trillion debt limit.

This is Boehner going all in on the Tea Party line here.  The problem is the Tea Party wants far more before they'll even consider a raise in the debt ceiling, and Boehner himself argues that raising the debt ceiling would be worse than putting the country into default with its creditors.

Speakers from the Cato Institute's Dan Mitchell to a man dressed as George Washington to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) -- who sent a written statement that was read aloud -- told a small crowd of reporters that House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and his GOP leadership team were ignoring their tea party mandate by supporting an increase in the federal debt limit. They called on Republicans in the House to attach strict spending riders onto any deal they make with an Obama administration desperate to avoid government default.

For Bachmann, no less than the "complete defunding of Obamacare" would do. For others, a total spending freeze and a small, short-term limit increase was acceptable, provided it came with guarantees of deep spending cuts. For Tea Party Founding Fathers chairman William Temple, a reinstatement of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and keeping women out of combat roles would also be acceptable.

And the Tea Party seems to think it will get 100% of its demands, because frankly they don't care if the country defaults and the economy is decimated.

And remember, this is the GOP's current offer, and it's take it or our economy is destroyed.  It seems the influence Wall Street has on the House Speaker is less than the threat of the Tea Party removing him from office.