Saxby Chambliss, a line-drawing junkyard dog
Based on what he told reporters in a conference call this morning, I guess Saxby Chambliss is taking talk of a primary challenge seriously:
“My message to you, Mister President, is you’d better strap on your chin strap very tight because this junkyard dog is going to address spending cuts and entitlement reform in the debt-ceiling debate, and that’s going to be a line in the sand for us Republicans and conservatives.”
Junkyard dogs wearing helmets and chin straps while drawing lines in the sand?
Look, I understand the political pressures that drive such statements. But I just don’t think that Chambliss and his Republican colleagues have thought this debt-ceiling strategy through very well. They’re picking bad ground on which to fight, and once it’s all over, they’re likely to end up even more embarrassed and politically vulnerable than they are today.
And I’m not alone in that thinking. As columnist Kimberley Strassel puts it in the Wall Street Journal:
“In the non-abstract, failure to raise government borrowing limits means U.S. default — and with it potential credit downgrades, market panic and resulting economic distress. Is the GOP willing to inflict that on the economy?”
The WSJ editorial board also seems quite skeptical of the strategy, advocating instead a much more measured, “small-ball” approach to the next two years:
“We’ll support efforts to cut spending and reform entitlements, but the political result will be far worse if Republicans start this fight only to cave in the end. You can’t take a hostage you aren’t prepared to shoot. Do the two GOP leaders have a better strategy today than they did in 2011, and do they have the backbench support to execute it?”
You can’t take a hostage that you aren’t prepared to shoot. Are you REALLY prepared to shoot, Sen. Chambliss? Are you really ready to do to the U.S. economy what William Tecumseh Sherman did to Atlanta? And if not, what happens when your bluff is called?
Maybe I’m wrong here, but when the WSJ editorial board is warning that maybe, just maybe, you’ve gotten a bit radical and need to dial it back, you might want to reconsider all this junk-yard dog stuff.
Even Newt Gingrich, a man not known for political caution, thinks this confrontational approach is doomed to major failure:
As Gingrich put it:
“They’ve got to find, in the House, a totally new strategy. Everybody’s now talking about, ‘Oh, here comes the debt ceiling.’ I think that’s, frankly, a dead loser. Because in the end, you know, it’s gonna happen. The whole national financial system is going to come in to Washington and on television and say: ‘Oh my God, this will be a gigantic heart attack, the entire economy of the world will collapse. You guys will be held responsible.’ And they’ll cave.”
Again, when some of your most dogmatic, aggressive supporters are already questioning the wisdom of your approach, with crunch time still a couple of months away, maybe just maybe you ought to reconsider.
Because once you shoot your hostage, you know what happens next?
– Jay Bookman
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519 comments Add your comment
Adam
January 4th, 2013
6:04 pm
Doggone: As far as I can tell, Boehner does not want to be held responsible for making a decision on anything, save a few under the radar things. He creates a few bills which he says he will send to the Senate, knowing full well that even if they are brought up for a vote they won’t pass and he won’t be held accountable for anything but the attempt. That gives the right wing media machine ammo to pretend Reid is obstructionist for not bringing up some of them, and they get to ignore all of the ones he brings to a vote that fail.
Then, he says stuff like “It’s the Senate’s turn now” or other such stuff. He made sure he was not part of the decision making process this time by insisting the Senate and Obama strike a deal by themselves, and then send it to the House.
He doesn’t want to make any decisions because he doesn’t want to be held accountable for their results.
To be a little bit fair, Democrats have passed stuff in the Senate that has gone to the House purely for symbolic purposes as well. But the volume of that stuff is so much smaller compared to actual bipartisan legislation because the Senate is hamstrung without a supermajority. Most of what comes out of the Senate had to get at least 5%-10% hard fought Republican votes, and that just doesn’t happen when your party is intent on being purely symbolic.
Obamatron
January 4th, 2013
6:08 pm
“We should run up deficits if those deficits pay for stimulus that will lead to higher revenue later, a better economy, and a greater chance to scale back on necessary spending (because it will be less necessary).”
[Birds tweeting, butterflies are all about, pleasant symphonic music plays in the background] Now here is a brilliant, sound idea. Let’s borrow a modest amount – say 4T – and inject it back into the economy to stimulate growth (because our economy is really very simple and there is but one factor which we know, absolutely and without a doubt, determines its health). If that doesn’t quite get it, we’ll just borrow another 4T. Rinse and repeat. If, once we have borrowed 50T and the economy still hasn’t recovered, then we’ll just tell everyone “our bad” and file for a Chapter 7. See? It’s easy.
Keep Up the Good Fight!
January 4th, 2013
6:14 pm
Sounds like Obamatron has a problem with stimulus. Wonder if he had that problem when Bush did it?
Impartial Observer
January 4th, 2013
6:16 pm
“If I may, I would like to point out that you are correct that we cannot KEEP doing it. But we will have to do it for a while before we are able to bring the revenue line back up (since revenues are hard fought) and to bring the spending line down (because honestly both sides spend).”
Exactly…it’s kind of like playing at the tables in Vegas. You are already in the hole quite a bit and if you can’t pay up…well…then I guess Guido will be taking you for a drive…so, you might as well plunge forward on the off chance you might get lucky. Then you can also, if you are so inclined, live the life of someone like JFK (you know, with all of those women) – except hopefully you won’t get shot.
Adam
January 4th, 2013
6:16 pm
Wonder if he had that problem when Bush did it?
Or Reagan, or Bush I, or Eisenhower….
Obamatron
January 4th, 2013
6:21 pm
“Sounds like Obamatron has a problem with stimulus. Wonder if he had that problem when Bush did it?”
I think all stimuli are…stimulating – by definition. Except when you are trying to stimulate something that is not alive or in a coma. Then you are probably wasting your time. But it is clear that both Obama and his fiscal mentor Bush have gotten at least some of their money back with their stimulus spending, so who are we to complain?
Adam
January 4th, 2013
6:23 pm
Impartial Observer: Not exactly. It’s more like this:
You have expenses of say, $10,000 per month. After careful consideration, you realize that you can only shave off $500 per month. Then you realize you only make about $4,000 per month.
Well then you decide maybe you should do two things: Find a way to earn extra money that will eventually build in the long term, while also finding some places to cut your spending here and there. You skip a meal every day, let’s say. And your second job has a bad start, let’s say it’s because your wife demoralizes your efforts. But it’s still making some extra cash so you put all that toward your expenses (part of which are debt).
Eventually after you keep this up for a year or two, your second job takes off and suddenly you start noticing more income (this would be population growth and economic activity that results in more people paying taxes). You also are surprised to find that some of your bills have magically been reduced (this would be things like stimulus and food stamps falling lower as the economy improves).
Unfortunately that’s where we are. We have to wait, because the GOP screwed up by spending so much during the Bush years and borrowing in order to pay for it, at interest rates that still dog us today.
Adam
January 4th, 2013
6:24 pm
By the way, if you hadn’t asked for that pay cut 12 years ago, you would be making $12,000 right now instead of $4,000 and you wouldn’t have any debt expenses. Oh well, right? Live and learn?
Towncrier
January 4th, 2013
6:31 pm
“Vast, given that your knowledge of such matters is so superior, you of course already know that the $4 trillion you reference means that as a result of the deal, the debt will be $4 trillion higher than it would have been if ALL the tax cuts had been allowed to expire and taxes jumped for everybody.”
And since your knowledge of similar matters is presumably vast, could you please point us to any proposals in writing for substantive spending cuts (and not like “well, we’re not going to spend 3T on moon cheese in the next ten years”) put forth by President Obama? Please, no links to canned speeches or soundbites. Sorry, I am a CarFax kind of guy around used car sales men and politicians.
Towncrier
January 4th, 2013
6:40 pm
“Impartial Observer: Not exactly. It’s more like this:”
Adam…I like you. I do. But (as a blogging “friend”) can I tactfully suggest that there is a bit of truth in the criticism Doom leveled at you earlier. I adopted the persona of Impartial Observer for purely satiric purposes – it was me. And I can’t believe that it seems you didn’t realize the posts were satiric (for you responded seriously to them) IMHO, you take this political stuff a bit too seriously. I take religion very seriously because I believe it has eternal ramifications. But politics is a human enterprise, often very corrupt and dysfunctional, that sooner or later winds every country up in the ditch (if you believe history). Chill out, my friend. Enjoy the weekend!
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
January 4th, 2013
6:42 pm
Sock-puppets.
JamIt
January 4th, 2013
6:52 pm
“Ann Skank Coulter???? ”
Fasho, dawg.
“Quoting that slimy bigot takes real chutzpah…”
Wut? Keep it gully, yo.
JamIt
January 4th, 2013
6:59 pm
“I said that when the banksters committed their Crimes of the Century, it would take ten years for us to recover. I still stand by that prediction.”
Unless, of course, it turns out to be false. Then I will…sit?…by it? Lie by it? Yeah…I like that last option. I will lie by it.
Towncrier
January 4th, 2013
7:03 pm
Goodnight all. Have a good weekend.
Joel Edge
January 5th, 2013
6:23 am
” they’re likely to end up even more embarrassed and politically vulnerable than they are today.”
I can’t speak to his motivation, Jay. But if your thinking is that a fight isn’t worth fighting because you might lose, that’s just flawed thinking.
dbm
January 5th, 2013
7:26 am
getalife
January 4th, 2013
12:51 pm
A better approach would be to write a new constitution to get politics out of money and religion.
cat
January 5th, 2013
9:22 am
I agree they haven’t thought this through for all the reasons listed; and frankly, most of their Base is white Seniors on Social Security and Medicare or will be on the programs within a 10 yr period. The very Last Thing they want are cuts from these programs. NYT has polled this several times and at least 70% or more of the polled would rather pay higher taxes than take Cuts to entitlements!
Not smart, Gop!
Jmaguire
January 6th, 2013
7:14 am
Saxby has no principle, just like most Republicans. When we will have an honest discussion about how bad our situation really is? Republican or Democrat, I think we are all being played as fools for what is going on. Lets stop playing politics and start talking issues.
Jay – you could help in these discussions or could keep writing the way you are.
FarTrain
January 6th, 2013
12:53 pm
Saxby is from Moultrie (Colquitt County) where they have a huge illegal immigrant problem(17.5% of the population) and he turns a blind eye to it. Doesn’t bother him as he is not there 99% of the time. They also have one of Gov. Deal’s Illegal Immigration Review Board’s members living in that county, and he is totally useless! Numerous daily arrests for no driver’s license, DUI, etc. and the judge usually fines them and gives one day in jail. Guess it will take somebody important getting killed in Moultrie before some eyes are opened! As my dad use to say, “SC is as useless as teats on a boar hog”.