The Fun of Playing with Fire

Washington is at an impasse. Legislative projects such as the immigration overhaul or limiting eavesdropping by the National Security Agency are going nowhere; the opponents in the budget fight keep making the same demands over and over, and there’s no progress in sight. One might think it couldn’t get any worse, and one could say the tea party’s insistence on coupling the passing of a new budget with drastic concessions in the health care reform law was a departure from political common sense. But one couldn’t say it came as a surprise.

The radical wing of the Republican Party loathes the social reform element that President Obama’s newly enacted universal health insurance represents.

But now it appears as if the enjoyment of playing with fire has spread to the inner circle of the Republican Party. An increasing number of representatives are beginning to question whether it’s really necessary to raise the nation’s statutory debt limit, i.e., that point at which the nation can no longer balance the books, and whether that would have the grave results the president predicts.

Senator Richard Burr said in a New York Times article on Wednesday, “We always have enough money to pay our debt service.” He pointed out that there was a constant stream of revenue flowing into the treasury, which made fear of a serious financial crisis unnecessary. The really critical time isn’t the Oct. 17 deadline announced by the Treasury Department, according to Republican Senator Bob Corker, who says it doesn’t get risky until sometime in November.

On Tuesday afternoon, President Obama warned Republicans at a hastily convened press conference that financial chaos on a global level would ensue if the debt limit were not raised within the next few weeks.

Boehner Rebuffs Obama

Boehner’s answer was quick and unmistakable. He said Obama was demanding unconditional surrender to which Republicans would not agree. Even if Boehner was concerned about the debt limit, he insisted Obama and the Democrats had to agree to negotiations over the Republican demands or they wouldn’t budge.

Obama’s words were seen in Washington as a small step toward resolution. He conceded the possibility of agreeing to a short-term raising of the debt limit as a basis for later negotiations. Up to now, there has been no Republican response. On Wednesday, the White House announced that Obama would invite all representatives and senators to discuss matters.