Here Are the GOP's Debt-Ceiling Demands, and They Are Insane
In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama voted against raising the debt ceiling. How is that any different than what the Republican Party is doing today? people all over cable news keep asking.
This is how. Obama's vote was a silly symbolic vote that had no consequence, but, crucially, it was also supposed to be a silly symbolic vote that had no consequence. Like many minority parties before them, Democrats used the debt ceiling to make a stink about fiscal policy, but they didn't try to hold the White House—or the international financial community—hostage.
This time is different. National Review snags the details of the House's debt-ceiling demands, and once you get through them, you'll be surprised they didn't ask for free ice cream, a lifetime pass to Disneyland, and a bill to rename the capitol "The Reagan Dome."
Give us everything we want or else we'll destroy the country! is the sort of demand that only a broken party inside a broken system could possibly hope to make. The debt ceiling should not exist and the rules of the Senate and House shouldn't allow a minority to repeatedly extort the majority, but, well, you go to debtmageddon with the government you got. Republicans, inching away from shutdown, are all in on an apocalyptic strategy to trade the full faith and credit of the country for their agenda.
To be fair, some are saying this list is less a ransom note than a menu. Fine. If it's a menu, it's the most expensive prix fixe meal in modern political history.
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