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You are here: Home / Politics / Hammer Time

Hammer Time

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thorbama

Standing in front of the Department of Homeland Security seal, President Obama looks poised to bring the hammer down on the Tea o’ Pee:

President Barack Obama again pressured House Republicans to put a “clean” government spending bill up for a vote Monday, challenging House Speaker John Boehner’s claim that the funding bill lacks sufficient support to pass.

“My very strong suspicion is there are enough votes there” to pass the government funding legislation, he said during an unannounced stop at FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C. “Hold a vote. Call a vote right now. Let’s see what happens.”

Bluff = Called.

[X-posted at Rumproast]

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  6. 6.

    StringOnAStick

    Do it. DO IT.

    No negotiation. no compromise, no debt default. PERIOD.

    This shit has to end now, not just pushed off for another day, then yet another one, then another. Every time we dance up to this debt default edge, the US loses stature on the international stage and we risk the loss of no longer being the world’s reserve currency. We lose that one, and the middle class is dust.

  9. 9.

    shelly

    So what’s the GOP’s response gonna be? Like King’s ‘It won’t go anywhere”
    So what? Like you guys are busy with so much else right now.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @shelly:

    Well, there is a bottle of Jim Beam and another bottle of Vat 69 still unopened in Boner’s office, or so I heard…

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    B.Barry needs to get the Blue Angels to fly over the Capitol and spell out “S-U-R-R-E-N-D-E-R B-O-N-E-R” in skywriting.

  17. 17.

    scav

    I like Carney’s “Whether it’s today, or a number of weeks from now, or a number of months from now, or a number of years from now, it will always be Congress’s responsibility to raise our debt ceiling so that the United States can pay the bills that Congress has incurred,” too.

  18. 18.

    ? Martin

    Reid is going to put up a clean debt limit bill in a few days. If he can pass it, it won’t have much actual effect, but Reid and Obama have provided clear and consistent viewpoints on this from the outset, and have followed through with everything they’ve stated. Immediately contradicting Boehner will have much more of an impact with the media.

    I’m trusting that Reid has McCain on board here. He’s going to need a few GOP senators to override the almost certain Cruz filibuster.

  19. 19.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Mumphrey, et al.)

    John Boehner has to be the sorriest bag of worthlessness I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe anybody so weak, fearful and shallow ever got to the speakership of the House of Representatives. The guy would rather suck Ted Cruz’z dick publicly than do the right thing and maybe lose his speakership.

    Shit, this guy has to know that this is how the country will remember him for the rest of history, but he’s so pitiful he doesn’t even care, just as long as he gets to sit in the big seat a little while longer, and if he has to lick Cruz’z ballz to keep it, well, I guess he thinks a little mouthwash will get rid of the taste. This kind of boneless, dickless selfishness has to be the definition of… Well, something, but like Rep. Marlin Stutzman, I don’t even know what that is.

  20. 20.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    What if Luke Cage Barack Obama had found the Hammer of Thor?

    “By the gleamin’ gates of funky Asgard, you suckas Republicans are gonna eat hammer!”

  21. 21.

    Sophist

    I think house Dems should take a cue from the Republicans’ stupid empty table photo op. They should all go sit at their spots in the chamber and say “we’re just going to wait here until John Boehner lets congress vote on this”.

  23. 23.

    zzyzx

    I think Boehner is right here… because the moderates are more fearful and prone voting the way the radicals want than the radicals are afraid to vote the way they do. If he gives the vote, he’ll work hard to make it fail.

  24. 24.

    stickler

    But here’s the problem, and we all know it: 18 “moderate” (or “sane,” or whatever other modifier you want to use) Republicans actually have to actually vote with the Democrats for a clean CR, or the debt ceiling hike, or whatever.

    They’re good at flapping their gums in private (and note: almost always ANONYMOUSLY) about getting past this crisis. But where’s the action? Hell, if they won’t go on record just saying they’ll vote for it, what use is it to hope they’ll actually vote to do the right thing?

    Sure, they could solve this problem tomorrow. But they could have solved it yesterday. And they didn’t.

  27. 27.

    nemesis

    @zzyzx:

    I think Boehner is right here… because the moderates are more fearful and prone voting the way the radicals want than the radicals are afraid to vote the way they do. If he gives the vote, he’ll work hard to make it fail.

    Yeah, the “moderates” are afraid of being singled out by the de facto leader of the gop, rush limbuagh, and fearful of a tough primary battle vs a bagger opponent. If real moderates still breathe in the gop, they best start acting like thy are still capable of acting. Cant have it both ways.

    The TP is the gop.

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @stickler: If the semi-sane GOPers aren’t willing to vote against the Tea Party, it sets the battle lines very clearly. It means the that the Tea Party is effectively the Republican Party and vice versa. Now, we who are paying attention already suspect (at least) that this is that case, but this should make it so obvious that even the MSM must notice and comment. If the semi-sane GOPers are willing to vote against the Tea Party, it marks a potential seismic shift in politics on the right.

  29. 29.

    Hill Dweller

    The President rightly pointed out the Dems were already making a huge concession by agreeing to the CR, which maintained the funding levels Republicans wanted. He also pointed out the Dems had been trying to negotiate with the Republicans all year.

  30. 30.

    Ash Can

    Bluff = Called.

    Absolutely nothing will happen, but the prez is exactly right to keep the pressure up. Get up in front of the cameras at least once a day and keep saying the same thing. Keep everyone’s attention focused.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    he said during an unannounced stop at FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington,

    So he’s busy setting up the FEMA camps and just needs a CR to fund their opening…

  32. 32.

    Redshirt

    If there was some rich fuck who cared about the country (and his money of course), he could call up Boner and any other House (R) who might vote for a clean CR and full debt ceiling resolution, telling them “If you do this, I’ll make sure you’re set for life”.

    Isn’t that what they really care about? Money? The fear of getting primaried from the Right is losing the power of a House seat, and the money that flows once you leave it. So give them the money, and if they lose their seats because they voted for the good of the country, they still win.

  35. 35.

    FRANCH

    @zzyzx: Right, and it’s actually what makes conservatives conservative: their tendency to be scared into inflexible positions. The far right will always have an advantage in their ability to persuade the stupid and scared. They’ve got a whole colorful mythology surrounding the Self Made Man and his nemesis, the Welfare Queen. Organic farming, NPR and Dave Matthews Band can’t satisfy the developmentally arrested pre-teen mind in quite the same way.

  37. 37.

    catclub

    @StringOnAStick: “the loss of no longer being the world’s reserve currency. We lose that one, and the middle class is dust. ”

    I disagree. The strong dollar is what has hollowed out the middle class fastest of all. A weaker dollar means we will export more goods but keep more jobs at home.

  38. 38.

    aimai

    I can’t believe they haven’t hospitalized Boehner yet with a combination of toxic alcohol poisoning and spastic colon.

  39. 39.

    El Cid

    @catclub: What you talk about? Strong good! Strong beat weak! Strong dollar like strong hammer, hit hard, make big crack in rock!

  43. 43.

    shortstop

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Mumphrey, et al.):

    Shit, this guy has to know that this is how the country will remember him for the rest of history

    I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Does he know? Has he convinced himself that he can pull a win out of this by steadfastly ignoring the facts in front of his face? I can’t think of anything scarier for this country than a caucus full of people permanently behaving like Mitt Romney on election night: stunned and disbelieving that their magical thinking didn’t best the tangible, measurable evidence to the contrary.

  44. 44.

    Robert Sneddon

    @catclub: The dollar bill is the world’s IOU. The US has created trillions of these greenback tokens and exchanged them for real wealth to the rest of the world for them to use in trade among themselves; oil and copper and all sorts of commodities can only be bought and sold in the world markets in dollars, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

    If the world loses faith in that steadfast IOU, if it no longer believes the US government will pay its debts as it promises to on those IOUs then they will look for another form of IOU to use in trade, whether it be the Euro or the renminbi or some other currency. That will be very expensive for the US as those IOUs come winging home, payment due.

  45. 45.

    Chris

    @Redshirt:

    No, it’s not just money, it’s status too. Boehner’s just too thick to realize that he’s already lost it and that he’s not getting out of this with his pride intact no matter how it goes down.

  46. 46.

    Elie

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Like it or not, however, Boehner’s weakness becomes Obama’s problem. He cannot wash his hands from this situation, much as he would like to. I don’t think he is 100% convinced on the real motivation here.. are they really just cornered rats who don’t know what they are doing or truly reckless but committed to destruction? Until they blink or we go over the cliff, there is no way of knowing and since the outcome is so horrible, Obama has no degrees of freedom to sit back.. he has to try to influence and force it.

  47. 47.

    Chris

    @Robert Sneddon:

    The good news there is that as Mclaren keeps pointing out (I know, I know, but I actually do think he’s spot on), all the alternatives to the American dollar aren’t that attractive. The Eurozone’s up to its eyeballs in problems of its own, owing to the fact (Krugman hammers on this pretty well) that the currency wasn’t very well designed in the first place. Autocratic regimes like China and Russia come with their own problems in terms of whether you can trust the government. Etc, etc.

    And that doesn’t mean “the dollar is safe,” it just means “people are going to be really wary of jumping ship from a currency they’ve used for so long when none of the alternatives look all that appealing either.” Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t eventually jump ship if the teabaggers keep screwing the pooch, so the question is whether the U.S. can get them under control in a timely fashion.

  50. 50.

    StringOnAStick

    @Chris: “in a timely fashion” is exactly right. China is already crowing about how this whole mess shows that they US is not a reliable international partner, and wouldn’t you smaller countries rather be safely nestled in our unchanging embrace? Talk about handing your enemies the keys to the castle; the GOP is giving China and Russia golden opportunities to benefit greatly while they fiddle.

    This is what I was pointing at earlier re: the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, and as Robert Sneddon so ably explained. Losing reserve currency status is not the same as having a lower-priced dollar; it is much, much worse and the people who will take it most firmly in the shorts are any US citizen not wealthy enough to be essentially stateless. Loss of reserve currency status is the fastest path to serfdom for all of us, which must be why the Koch’s are so happy to fund this political brinksmanship.

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @StringOnAStick: ” Losing reserve currency status is not the same as having a lower-priced dollar; it is much, much worse”

    Baloney. Swiss franc is not the world reserve currency. They are fine. Euro is not and yet Germany
    seems to survive from day to day.

    Will it make a difference? Yes. Will it mean collapse (much much worse than a lower priced dollar)?
    I don’t think so.

  52. 52.

    MCA1

    @Chris: I think this is right, although there is a course for him that will allow him postmortem dignity of a sort. That would be standing up to the teahadists, having a CR and debt ceiling raise voted for and approved by a slightly bipartisan group, falling on his gavel and then watching from the sidelines while the Tea Party fucks up so badly that history views him as the last person fighting valiantly to keep the Republican Party from falling apart and out of power for a generation. That will take an awful lot of hindsight and time, because for the next decade he’ll generally be seen as weak-kneed and participating in the full frontal assault on the normal democratic process that is the GOP under Obama. But if he goes out loudly enough, declaring that he doesn’t care if he loses the Speakership, he’s doing what he thinks is right for the country, then he could eventually be seen in a more positive historical light, just trying to hold his delicate caucus together and not giving in to the zombies on his far flank.

    You’re right, though, that he apparently doesn’t realize how worthless the title of Speaker is right now. He’s already been there – that’s not going to change on his resume regardless of when he’s removed, whether it be by internal putsch or losing the majority. But currently, it’s a horrible, thankless position that any sane person should be glad to be rid of.

  53. 53.

    Robert Sneddon

    @catclub: A significant part of America’s prosperity is due to the dollar being the world’s defacto currency, especially since the end of WWII. There are trillions of dollars out there which circulate among non-American countries as they buy and sell goods and raw materials. If those countries stop believing the dollar is worth a dollar, so to speak then they will trade those dollars (which are IOUs from the US government) for another currency and send those dollars back to the US and spend them on goods, raw materials, anything that isn’t a greenback at which point the US ends up with fewer “things” and a lot of paper and electronic IOUs it thought it would never have to honour because of the centuries of “full faith and credit” it has built up by not defaulting on its debts in the past.

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