Here's The Debt Ceiling Move The GOP Could Play To Really Box Obama In
We're going to hit the debt ceiling on October 17.
Barack Obama has said he won't negotiate at all, and is demanding a totally clean lift.
The GOP, on the other hand, is coming out with a preposterous wish list of demands in exchange for a hike to the debt ceiling.
Per the National Review, some of the demands include:
- A one-year delay of Obamacare.
- Blocking Net Neutrality regulations.
- Approving the Keystone Pipeline.
- Blocking the EPA from regulating ash waste from coal-fired power plants.
- Subjecting funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to annual Congressional appropriation.
Of course Obama will agree to none of those things, and the offer also makes it clear that the GOP's debt ceiling ploy isn't even about the debt, but just using the debt ceiling as a leverage point to get what they want in government, even though they're in the minority.
Here's what the GOP should do instead.
Make the following offer: A hike in the debt ceiling on the condition that Obama approves the Keystone Pipeline.
If Obama seems receptive, it will prove that he was lying about not being willing to negotiate.
If Obama says no, he'll look unreasonable, not circumventing a crisis over something so minor and on something really popular.
Polls show broad, bipartisan support for Keystone XL, and it's the environmentalist wing of the Democratic party that Obama is pandering to by nott approving it. If the GOP could get out of its own way, this would be the move to make.
