No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 34

So over at the NY Times, Ross Douthat tries to convince himself that Republicans aren't completely insane.

The Republican Party’s strategy in the debt-ceiling negotiations has baffled centrists and vindicated liberals. For months, the party’s leaders have repeatedly turned down deals that would cut spending significantly because their members won’t compromise on taxes. To moderates, this intransigence is inexplicable: Are they crazy? To the left, it’s all-too-predictable: See, we told you they were crazy!
 
But there is a method to the Republicans’ madness, and it rests on four things they know (or at least sense) about the deficit debate that the rest of the political class often ignores. 

He goes on to explain that House conservatives should take the McConnell plan because A) Obama is really a right-of-center guy, B) the Bush Tax Cuts are set to expire if nothing is done, C) grand bargains never work out as good as people say they will and D) we're going to have to raise taxes at some point.

I'd argue point A, but the other three are correct.  The problem is Douthat is ignoring point E, which is the Republicans really are insane fanatics.  Steve Benen:

For the country’s sake, I’d love to believe Douthat. Really, I would. I’d be absolutely delighted to learn that Republicans are just aggressive poker players, but when push comes to shove, they’ll be able to tell the difference between fantasy and reason, and they’ll put the nation’s interests first.

But here we are, 20 days until a brutal deadline, and Republicans give every appearance of being downright certifiable. We know this from their own rhetoric, and we know this from every published description of Republican deliberations in this process. According to the party’s own Speaker, at least a quarter of the House GOP caucus actually wants to see the United States default. The actual number is probably much higher.

As one leading economist put it yesterday, observers around the world are saying of Republicans, “There’s no way they could possibly be this stupid.”

It’s time people start coming to grips with the fact they very well might be precisely this stupid.

And let's not forget Eric Cantor is shorting treasuries...and he stands to make quite a bit of money if the US does default.  He does have some influence over that, you know.

I'm still going to go with Wall Street kicking enough tea party ass to force a deal.

Oh, and you know that whole "Republicans demand that we'll never raise a dime of taxes" thing?  It's complete hogwash.  Gallup's latest poll:



For you non-math geniuses out there, what "26% of Republicans say only spending cuts should be used to cut debt" is that the other 74% of Republicans are okay with at least some tax increases.  A vast majority of Republicans are in favor of some tax increases, which is exactly what President Obama offered and the GOP summarily rejected out of hand Saturday.

So no, the Republicans are not serious in any way.  They have lost this one.  They're now resorting to lying about Obama "storming out" of yesterday's talks.

Let that sink in for a sec.  Republicans?  Lying about Obama?  Shocking, I know.