Danger Will Robinson
by digby
Politico reports today that the House is in disarray, although there is no leadership challenge so far. They also reveal that the Republicans haven't settled on a debt ceiling strategy just yet:
The original plan was to spend the early part of the summer crafting a solution since it seemed that the nation would hit its borrowing limit in September. The nearly monthlong August recess would have provided a perfect backstop.
Now, the whole timeline is thrown into flux. First, House Republicans want to pass a bill next week that prioritizes debt payments in the case of default.
Several options are being eyed to ride alongside the debt ceiling. One is tax reform — a strategy vocally supported by Ryan, sources say. This method would include passing a framework for tax reform, which would allow Congress to lift the debt ceiling, alongside a plan to allow tax-writing committees to figure out how to write the difficult details of reform.
Another option under discussion, according to aides, is moving a package including some spending cuts, elements of entitlement reforms and piecemeal tax-reform measures.
That last is a recipe for disaster -- not a Grand Bargain, just a plain old bad deal. One can easily imagine another ohmyGodit'sArmageddonandwe'reallgoingtodie debt ceiling scare with the end result being a Democratic agreement to cut entitlements for fake "tax reform" under the threat of being blamed for taking down the economy. The groundwork has been laid --- one could easily call this a "balanced approach" after all. It just might be a little less ambitious in the amount of deficit reduction they achieve.
Hopefully the Republicans are still too dumb to make any deal that requires Democrats to do their dirty work for them. But you never know when they might wake up...
I'm going to root for Ryan's plan on this one. A "framework" for "tax reform" sounds very good to me.
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