Tick, tick. August 2nd is the Debt Limit Armageddon. Or Not.

You forgot tax increases. The moderate position, and the one held by most Americans, is to use a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to solve the problem. That is the position the Dems have taken.

Here's a graph showing recent polls on this question -

Hoyer against cuts to entitlement programs
By Mike Lillis - 07/19/11 01:25 PM ET

The second-ranking House Democrat on Tuesday threw his weight behind the party's blanket opposition to entitlement benefit cuts in a debt-ceiling deal. The comments represent a subtle but significant change in Hoyer's approach to the negotiating table. As recently as last week, the Democratic whip was being careful not to rule out any policy options during the contentious debt talks — a position shared by President Obama.

"Democrats have said that everything needs to be on the table," Hoyer said last week, "and have put everything on the table."

By going on the record opposing entitlement benefit cuts, Hoyer has aligned himself with more liberal House Democrats like Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been clear from the start of the debate that she's open to entitlement reforms, but not benefit cuts.

"We must protect Medicare and Social Security," Pelosi told reporters last week. "We will not support cuts."

Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said it was the consensus of Democrats to oppose any benefit cuts under Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as lawmakers haggle over how to hike the debt limit and rein in deficit spending.

"We have made it very clear that we have no intention of supporting [a bill] that cuts beneficiaries' benefits," Hoyer told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday. Source

House Democrats: No dice on Medicare, Social Security cuts

July 08, 2011|By Deirdre Walsh, CNN Congressional Producer

The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Emanuel Cleaver, D-Missouri, says he won't vote for benefit cuts.

Congressional Democrats, frustrated that President Obama is including entitlement changes in debt negotiations, pushed back Friday, insisting they will not support any benefit cuts to Medicare or Social Security.

They also reminded the White House it should heed their concerns if it wants to get Democratic votes necessary to pass any agreement.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had a one-on-one meeting with the president Friday morning, told her caucus she reminded Obama that Democrats oppose any reductions in benefits for these government programs that serve as safety nets for the elderly, poor and disabled.

This equivalence game you are playing, as I said above, is silly. Both parties aren't pushing us towards the cliff; the Republican party is. The Dems would vote on a clean debt ceiling raise in a heartbeat. There's no need for all this gamesmanship, other than the fact that one party is forcing it - for their own political advantage. There's no equivalence there.

...That might change, however, if Boehner can't corral his caucus when it actually comes time to vote on a debt ceiling increase. In that case, Boehner may need Democratic votes to get a bill passed, which will mean listening to Pelosi and Hoyer for the first time in this ongoing trainwreck.

I do believe that their position of "we won't play unless there are no cuts to entitlements" is equally dangerous as we approach the edge of the cliff.

Then why doesn't he simply push the vote on a one-sided deficit reduction package that pulls us back from the cliff? It's because he knows damn well that no matter what he pushes through the House it has to pass the Senate and get signed off by Obama and that won't happen unless there's a balanced approach. He's going to lose some of his hard-liners. The only question is how many. He may also want to be Speaker again next year and how he handles this will clearly determine his future in that position. He's going to need at least some Dem votes in the House, imo. Again, the only question is how many.

There are plenty of Blue Dog Democrats who could probably be persuaded to cross the aisle

Then you've just agreed with my original point from yesterday. The position of the Dem leadership in the House (Hoyer, Pelosi, et al) is an extremist position.