This report could have been written in advance after the outcome of New York 26, where GOPers lost a “safe” seat to Democrats in an election many believe turned on the unpopularity of the Paul Ryan budget and its plan to seriously tinker with Medicare:
Republicans are using the lopsided outcome of Tuesday’s failed debt ceiling vote as a means to push through Medicare reforms.
Not everyone was open to the idea, pushed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), that a plan by Rep. Paul Ryan to privatize the program for future seniors remain “on the table” for debt limit talks. But what was clear from Tuesday night’s vote, in which a clean debt ceiling bill went down 318 to 97, was that GOP lawmakers felt emboldened to try to push entitlement reform yet again.
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“There’s no way to get there without having some examination of the entitlement programs that we have,” Freshman Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said. “There’s no question that to get the House back in order, we’re going to have to do something revolutionary.”
In other words: threaten to not raise the debt ceiling or perhaps have some more votes where it is not accomplished to a)get with a budget deal that which is clearly going to be impossible at the ballot box b)remove the problem of the Ryan budget and Medicare reform from 2012, and c)declare to the base Mission Accomplished. This strategy is clear and it’ll be fascinating to see if the Democrats are prepared to counter it or just go along with it. It’s a game of economic chicken which can end with all chickens being fried.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.