No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 39

Conservative group Club For Growth is warning Republicans that they must vote to make massive, immediate spending cuts, must vote not to raise the debt limit, and must vote for a balance budget amendment...or else.

"Cut, Cap, and Balance will fix our fiscal mess. The McConnell-Reid plan does not," said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola in a statement accompanying an alert that these votes will be counted on the group's scorecard. "McConnell-Reid simply punts our budget problem further down the road and is everything that's wrong with Washington. Congress has proven that they are unable to balance the budget without reform. Cut, Cap and Balance is the only plan that permanently handcuffs politicians from spending more money than they take in."

If you're a Republican, voting for Plan B means you're that much likelier to face a primary. By holding the test votes on Cut, Cap, and Balance, and the Balanced Budget Amendment, they can at least meet the Club for Growth, and similar groups half way. 

True, but the Club For Growth is also saying that anyone who votes for the McConnell-Reid escape hatch will also find themselves the target of the organization and that means Club For Growth is basically asking Republicans to force a massive government shutdown or default crisis.  Either way, serious damage will be done to our fragile economy.

Imagine that.  The Club For Growth wants a recession or even a depression.  The irony.  Meanwhile, back on the Senate side, Kent Conrad and the Gang of Six (minus Tom Coburn) will present their own plan to cut spending, "reform" tax loopholes and entitlements and cut $3.6 trillion or so from the deficit...that's right, the Catfood Commission plan is back.

Members of a bipartisan group of senators who worked for months to forge an agreement to make deep reductions in the federal debt will unveil a plan to slash trillions of dollars off that debt over the next 10 years.


The former Gang of Six members will reveal their plan privately Tuesday to a group of 40 to 50 senators.

"We're presenting the progress we've made," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-North Dakota, the Budget Committee chairman. "It's a comprehensive approach that reforms entitlements, reforms the revenue code, cuts spending, is balanced and is in the range of $3.6 (trillion) to $3.7 trillion."

"We're going to ask people if they are interested in pursuing this," he said.

You knew Simpson-Bowles was going to make a return somewhere in all this mess.  Hopefully it will be ignored along with Coburn's crazy $9 trillion plan.  On the other hand, Greg Sargent reminds us what's at stake here:

The problem for GOP leaders, however, is that the Tea Party and the right are dead serious about this stopping-the-debt-ceiling-hike thing — reality and the consequences be damned. Solid majorities of Republican voters and Tea Partyers don’t even think failure to raise it will be a problem. Symbolic votes to “disapprove” of debt ceiling hikes aren’t enough. Anything short of stopping the debt ceiling from going up is unacceptable. The McConnell plan would surrender the GOP’s ability to do this. Therefore it’s a total cave-in.

Business leaders and sane GOP leaders want the debt ceiling raised and understand that failure will be catastrophic. The Tea Party wants a hike blocked at all costs. The problem in a nutshell is that there’s no putting that ideological genie back in the bottle. One party is going to have to walk out of this situation not getting what it wants. Hint: That party’s name begins with the letter “T.”

Indeed.

[UPDATE] David Brooks is as angry at the Tea Party as I think I've ever seen him be over this issue.