Enter
trying to use the debt ceiling as
leverage against the White House
and Congressional Democrats.
And they are simultaneously
waving that leverage away, saying either that Treasury can keep
most of its normal operations
going, or that the default apocalypse that economists warn is on
the horizon is imaginary.
Consider these two Ted Cruz
statements, alongside one another:
1. “Will the U.S. default on its debt?
... The answer is of course not.”
2. “The debt ceiling historically
has been among the best leverage that Congress has to rein in
the executive.”
This is some extreme cognitive
dissonance here. The debt ceiling
has not, actually, been historically
used as a leverage point to rein in
the executive branch. (The debt
ceiling needs to be occasionally
raised because of bills and allocations passed by the legislature.)
But even if that were true, one
might be given to wonder, what
good is using the debt ceiling as
a leverage point if the U.S. isn’t
going to default on it’s debt? The
threat of default is the leverage.
It’s very strange. I don’t think it’s
lost on any of these Republicans
that the whole plan here is to hold
LOOKING FORWARD
IN ANGST
HUFFINGTON
10.20.13
But what makes all
of this truly surreal isn’t just
the fact that some of these
people believe that there are
no consequences to a debt
ceiling breach. It’s that all
of these people are supposed
to be trying to use the debt
ceiling as leverage against
the White House and
Congressional Democrats.”
the debt ceiling hostage in exchange
for a series of demands. And they
are making no offer in return —
raising the debt ceiling is what’s
supposed to be the concession.
But then they are simultaneously putting out a message that
breaching the debt ceiling would
not be a big deal. What force,
then, is supposed to compel the
Democrats to come to the table?
This is not how hostage-taking
works. There is supposed to be
the threat of a consequence. It’s
supposed to be, “Pay my ransom
or the hostage dies.” It’s not,
“Pay my ransom or else everything will be perfectly fine, hey,
don’t even worry about it.”
I would definitely love to play
poker against some of these people, you know, if they weren’t
playing games with the
global economy.