Wink, wink. John Boehner, Paul Ryan and their gang that can’t shoot straight are holding the debt-ceiling hostage to tax cuts but telling financial markets the guns aren’t loaded.
“Just ignore Tuesday’s vote against raising the debt ceiling, House Republican leaders whispered to Wall Street,” says a New York Times editorial. “We didn’t really vote against it, members suggested; we just sent another of our endless symbolic messages, pretending to take the nation’s credit to the brink of collapse in order to extract the maximum concessions from President Obama.”
What we have here is the classic Mad Magazine cover of a cute canine with a gun to his head and the caption, “Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog.”
Republicans go to the White House, dance around with the President and then stand outside smirking their talking points for the TV cameras, but everyone, with the possible exception of a few Tea Party diehards, knows they are playing Russian roulette without legislative bullets.
One of the House freshmen issues a statement refusing to attend. “Until the president produces a responsible deficit reduction plan,” he huffs, ”I’m not going to the White House to negotiate with myself.” Such delusions of grandeur reflect the pressure on Boehner to keep up the pointless charade.
MORE.