But The Catfood Commission Came Back, The Very Next Day Part 4

President Obama and Republican leaders may be trying to lie low on the Catfood Commission's report to gut Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid in order to cut taxes for the rich even more, but there will always be Centrist Daleks who will happily push that shiny red button and work to make the Commission's report into law.

Enter Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, and Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, who are looking to build a "bipartisan" group of senators who will stab America in the back and the front.

Like the deficit commission, Chambliss's and Warner's group is also mulling tax reform as a "byproduct" of their spending discussions. Warner noted that the two men agree on the general idea of broadening the tax base by eliminating many existing deductions, while at the same time lowering personal and corporate tax rates. 

While the recent tax-cut deal certainly added to the debt, both men differentiated between that short-term measure to stimulate the economy and long-term efforts to address spiraling deficits - efforts that would take effect after the economy has recovered.

"The term I've used is that we've got to show we can walk and chew gum" at the same time, Warner said.


The group may get an opportunity to do that soon. Before next summer, Congress will have to take a painful vote to raise the federal debt ceiling to allow the country to borrow more money.

"If we can use that as a leverage" to get the ball rolling on a deficit-reduction plan, Chambliss said, "that's an ideal scenario." 

It's those two bolded sentences that should be raising the alarm bells.  Tying the Catfood Commission recommendations to the debt ceiling vote would be problematic at best.  There's no way the banksters are going to let the Republicans wreck the financial industry by blowing up that vote, but if we're really talking about the Centrists holding this hostage in order to get tax cuts for the rich, well that's a different story.

It's one thing if Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn wants a hostage.  it's entirely another thing if Mark Warner does it, and that's definitely something you're going to want to keep an eye on.