A reader quotes me:
Nonetheless, we shouldn’t get carried away and argue that the debt ceiling has never been used as political blackmail. In fact, the Democrats were the first to play this game against against Nixon.
I strongly disagree with that statement. I don’t know if you are missing the point of today’s showdown or are intentionally trying to make a limited, although irrelevant, point that past debt ceiling fights have occurred. But nothing like what Republicans are proposing now has ever happened before, and it is dangerous for folks to try to equivocate and obscure this new, extremely dangerous threat.
Yes, there have been isolated examples where an opposing party that controlled both houses of Congress have attempted to actually pass and attach bills to a debt ceiling increase to pressure a president not to veto such legislation (like the Nixon example or another example involving gasoline taxes under Carter), or where a majority Congressional party tried to rein in future spending as a condition of increasing the debt ceiling (such as Republicans refusing to provide the votes needed to raise the debt ceiling under Republican Eisenhower).
While I don’t agree with those past examples of using the debt ceiling as leverage, they do at least involve an inter-branch power struggle between the Legislative branch (both House and Senate) and the Executive branch on a limited issue, and where the recalcitrant Congressional party had the votes to pass its demand through Congress.
What Republicans propose now differs wildly in kind, not degree.
Republicans today cannot attach to a debt ceiling increase a bill that passed both the House and Senate. Indeed, Republicans have not even shown that most of their demands could even pass the Republican House. And Republicans can’t claim that their votes alone are necessary to pass a debt ceiling bill. Rather, absent a Republican Senate filibuster and a faux Republican “majority of the majority” House rule, a clean debt ceiling would pass easily.
Instead, what we have here today is a new concept that a rump minority – using pure obstruction alone – can force enactment of its own agenda through a threat of catastrophic economic retaliation. Also, with a $16 trillion debt, this would be an annual extortion threat that far surpasses the value of majority electoral success. As Matt Yglesias aptly puts it: “Republicans are essentially asking for an end to constitutional government in the United States and its replacement by a wholly novel system.”
In short, contrary to your statement, we have never before seen a minority party openly and aggressively threatening to destroy the full faith and credit of the U.S. unless its agenda was enacted – much less right after that specific agenda was defeated in a national election.
(Cartoon via Canimation)
The Dish 