In
September, the National Review Online made public the blueprint of the House
GOPs war plan to stonewall the debt ceiling raise. The plan of attack included
many of the same demands the GOP has repeatedly made to stall, eliminate, or
delay every program and initiative President Obama has put forth. The GOP's
price for approving the debt ceiling increase is for Obama to agree to cut, cut,
and cut some more spending on virtually everything from Head Start to food
nutrition programs that directly aid the poor and low income workers. The issue
of whether America can pay its bills or not, or reneges on its financial
obligations, which would be the catastrophe that results from failing to raise
the ceiling, is secondary to the GOP's cynical political ploy. Despite the GOP's
pious declarations that the debt ceiling battle is solely about fiscal
responsibility and reining in America's debt, it's not.
The
debt ceiling debate can't be separated from the GOP's never-ending hunt for any
issue that can taint, embarrass, and ultimately weaken the Obama presidency and
at the same time re-impose its agenda on Congress and the nation. The GOP's goal
has altered only slightly since Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's oft
repeated, and failed, vow to make Obama a one term president. The GOP's slight
course correction is to still to crush
Obamacare, gut tax increases
on the rich, scrap or water down to the point of irrelevancy financial industry
regulations, a revamp of the tax code to further boost the rich, and
coerce Obama to put Medicare and Social Security even deeper on
the chopping block.
That's
only the start. The GOP's take no prisoner's stance on the debt ceiling is also
aimed at firing up its sometimes doubting, critical and lackluster conservative
base, create dissension among Democrats, and make Obama appear to be an inept,
bumbling and deceitful president. If the
plan works, it would sour a significant number of independents on Obama and by
extension the Democrats, whip GOP establishment leaders into towing the Tea
Party line, solidify the image of the GOP as the guardian of the taxpayer's
purse against supposedly rapacious big government, and tighten its grip on the
House, and maybe, just maybe, grab back the Senate in 2014. This would
effectively politically neuter Obama for the remaining two years of his term,
and make Hillary think twice about tossing her hat in the presidential rink in
2016.
During
George W. Bush's White House tenure, the debt ceiling was an absolute non-issue.
It was routinely raised in those years with barely a peep that the U.S. was in
mortal danger of a fiscal crash and burn under the great weight of debt. This
debt was incurred almost exclusively by Bush's two wildly costly and wasteful
wars, his two behemoth tax cut giveaways to the rich, a relentless savage of
regulations that made banks and corporation's tax liability fall to historic low
levels, and then capped by a taxpayer giveaway to Wall Street banks and
financial houses. But the GOP didn't acquiesce in turning the debt into a
non-issue solely to appease a GOP president. The
debt ceiling has been raised 74 times since March 1962 that includes 18 times
under Ronald Reagan, eight times under Bill Clinton, seven times under Bush, and
three times under Obama. The
ceiling was raised even in election years without any public fanfare.
Yet
when polls showed that a majority of Americans were concerned about mounting
debt, and that a sizeable number of Americans wanted to rein in spending, the
debt ceiling instantly became a fresh weapon for the GOP to barrage Obama. The
GOP's ploy in that regard played out to predictable perfection. The GOP has one
more ace up its sleeve to embarrass Obama and subtly shift public anger over the
shutdown and the looming debt ceiling battle away from blaming the GOP to
blaming Obama. It put several piecemeal spending measures on the table as its
plan for ending the budget stalemate knowing full well that the administration
would reject them all. But the feint would be enough to allow the GOP to scream
that it was acting responsibly to resolve the crisis (one it manufactured) and
the party was being stonewalled by an intransigent, politically vindictive White
House
House
speaker John Boehner played this ploy further by not only blasting the White
House for stalling a deal, but then assuring the public that the GOP will act
prudently and not permit a government debt payment default. GOP leaders will
eventually approve a deal on the budget and this will include raising the debt
ceiling for the 75th time. But the GOP won't cut the deal without another blitz
attack on Obama and spinning out new cynical ploys in an attempt to taint and
embarrass him. That's because the GOP's debt ceiling war is not about debt but
about Obama.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political
analyst. He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New
America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban
Radio Network. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KTYM 1460 AM
Radio Los Angeles and KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network. Follow Earl Ofari
Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
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