Who could have ever predicted ...
by digby
... that when the Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue was asked if Congress was going to raise the debt ceiling, he would say:Yes, it will be raised, Donohue answered, mainly because the country can not afford to not pay its bills. To those newly-elected representatives who say they aren’t going to raise the debt ceiling and will shut down government, Donohue said the U.S. Chamber has its own message: “We’ll get rid of you.”
He then went on to praise U.S. House Speaker John Boehner for his Congressional leadership.
“He’s growing into his shorts,” Donohue said. “He’s put on his big boy pants.”
The Big Money Boyz were never going to let the tea party muck around with things they consider to be above their pay grade. (In that respect, democracy itself is the big kabuki game.) I'm sure they've sent the same message to the Democrats who are dutifully putting on their "big boy pants" too and it's very likely that Obama will get a nice, tidy bipartisan vote on the debt ceiling.
Brad DeLong thinks this means they will also get a clean vote which would actually be the best possible outcome and I fervently hope that's what happens. But if I had to guess, I'd say that both sides will get what they wanted out of these "negotiations." The Republicans wanted cuts, we know that. What the Democrats wanted out of this remains a mystery. But seeing as this raising of the debt limit has always been a foregone conclusion, we'll know what it is when we see the "deal."
The Big Money Boyz just freed the hostages.
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