Comments on: Obama’s debt ceiling strategy https://habitablezone.com/2012/12/13/obamas-debt-ceiling-strategy/ Sun, 19 Apr 2026 04:50:17 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2012/12/13/obamas-debt-ceiling-strategy/#comment-21760 ER Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:13:47 +0000 http://habitablezone.com/?p=28137#comment-21760 If the GOP tries to use the debt ceiling as a tactic, he will simply ignore it and override them. The Republicans will howl and squeal like little piggies, fight it in the courts, and possibly even defeat Obama there, but it will cost them politically and it will take time, lots of time. By the time they get it overturned, we'll either be over the fiscal cliff, or it will have been avoided. They won't be able to use it in their hostage negotiations. With the asymmetry already existing in the polls of favorability and trust ratings for Obama and against the GOP and Congress, it will work. And if actual hardships occur because of the financial consequences of this move, the Republicans will be blamed for all of it, as they should. He didn't have to invoke the 14th the last time they pulled this crap, they screwed up without any help from him, so he was able to save it for the next time they tried it. The Democrats will paint the 14th Amendment solution as a final, desperate, back-to-the-wall act by a President doing everything he could to save the nation's financial reputation, and the Republicans will come off as churlish, sneaky backstabbers ready to destroy America with a cheap technicality (which will be true, by the way) just to avoid raising taxes on rich people. If the trap ever has to be sprung, it is now baited and set. Just like the last debt ceiling battle, the GOP will walk straight into an ambush, and they will come off as the villains as well as the losers. The White House has already leaked out (a few days ago) that it considered the 14th Amendment as constitutionally inappropriate for this, but I believe this was just to set up the narrative for Obama that "I had to do something, the Republicans were willing to have America default on its debt just to stop a minor tax increase on the rich." That's not just the way it looks, that's the way it is. The Tea Party hatred and contempt for this President has made the Republicans complacent about Obama. They have underestimated him, believing he really is as stupid and weak as they have painted him. But if they insist on attacking their imaginary Obama, they will just keep getting spanked by the real one. On Obama's part, he feels he has already bent over backwards throughout his entire first term to accomodate these people, to try to meet them half-way, work with them, and they have only taken advantage of him, obstructed and sabotaged him at every step of the way, and gone way out of their way to spit in his face. The President has his election mandate, his allies are right behind him, he's taken his show on the road and sold his program to the people, and he has four more lame-duck years to work with, with no re-election to have to make concessions for. He even has the business community backing him up on this. A credit crash will hurt them financially. Obama has nothing to lose. So even if Republicans get their way and succeed in crashing the economy, he can truthfully say, "Don't look at me, I did everything I could to stop it". It will be true and everyone will know its true. The White House is using the debt-ceiling just the way it used the fiscal cliff, turning the GOPs own weapons against them. I smell the guiding hand of Bill Clinton's political genius behind all this: The Zen of Bubba. I'm looking forward to watching it all unfold. If the GOP tries to use the debt ceiling as a tactic, he will simply ignore it and override them. The Republicans will howl and squeal like little piggies, fight it in the courts, and possibly even defeat Obama there, but it will cost them politically and it will take time, lots of time. By the time they get it overturned, we’ll either be over the fiscal cliff, or it will have been avoided. They won’t be able to use it in their hostage negotiations.

With the asymmetry already existing in the polls of favorability and trust ratings for Obama and against the GOP and Congress, it will work. And if actual hardships occur because of the financial consequences of this move, the Republicans will be blamed for all of it, as they should.

He didn’t have to invoke the 14th the last time they pulled this crap, they screwed up without any help from him, so he was able to save it for the next time they tried it. The Democrats will paint the 14th Amendment solution as a final, desperate, back-to-the-wall act by a President doing everything he could to save the nation’s financial reputation, and the Republicans will come off as churlish, sneaky backstabbers ready to destroy America with a cheap technicality (which will be true, by the way) just to avoid raising taxes on rich people. If the trap ever has to be sprung, it is now baited and set.

Just like the last debt ceiling battle, the GOP will walk straight into an ambush, and they will come off as the villains as well as the losers. The White House has already leaked out (a few days ago) that it considered the 14th Amendment as constitutionally inappropriate for this, but I believe this was just to set up the narrative for Obama that “I had to do something, the Republicans were willing to have America default on its debt just to stop a minor tax increase on the rich.” That’s not just the way it looks, that’s the way it is.

The Tea Party hatred and contempt for this President has made the Republicans complacent about Obama. They have underestimated him, believing he really is as stupid and weak as they have painted him. But if they insist on attacking their imaginary Obama, they will just keep getting spanked by the real one. On Obama’s part, he feels he has already bent over backwards throughout his entire first term to accomodate these people, to try to meet them half-way, work with them, and they have only taken advantage of him, obstructed and sabotaged him at every step of the way, and gone way out of their way to spit in his face.

The President has his election mandate, his allies are right behind him, he’s taken his show on the road and sold his program to the people, and he has four more lame-duck years to work with, with no re-election to have to make concessions for. He even has the business community backing him up on this. A credit crash will hurt them financially. Obama has nothing to lose. So even if Republicans get their way and succeed in crashing the economy, he can truthfully say, “Don’t look at me, I did everything I could to stop it”. It will be true and everyone will know its true.

The White House is using the debt-ceiling just the way it used the fiscal cliff, turning the GOPs own weapons against them. I smell the guiding hand of Bill Clinton’s political genius behind all this: The Zen of Bubba. I’m looking forward to watching it all unfold.

]]>