I was bothered all last night after seeing somewhere (The Ed Show?) that a two year elimination of the debt ceiling might be part of the Fiscal Cliff agreement. What happened to President Obama’s resolve that he wasn’t going to allow the Republicans to extort the United State in this way in the future? Apparently, I was taken in when I wrote, Why the Debt Ceiling is No Problem. He seemed so convincing. But it appears that he was just bluffing and we have the usual Democratic Party president: limped dick and badly in need of a belief system.
I’m not the only one to notice this. Matt Yglesias wrote earlier today:
There are two reasonable ways to handle the debt ceiling. One is to achieve a permanent solution as part of the resolution of the fiscal cliff. The other is to completely ignore it in the resolution of the fiscal cliff, and then have the president wage and win a total victory on a separate debt ceiling battle. Delaying the debt ceiling crisis until some time in 2015 as part of a larger bargain merely institutionalizes the idea that the debt ceiling is a bargaining chip and entrenches the idea that the president will cave.
If I could depend upon allies like the president, I would become a Republican. Then I might get the policy I want!
