Republicans Take Their Ball and Go Home
Vice President Joe Biden has been leading negotiations among a bipartisan group of lawmakers to hammer out a long-term deficit reduction package in time to avert a U.S. default on its obligations caused by the GOP’s refusal to raise the debt ceiling (more on that here) — something that must happen by Aug. 2.
Today, just hours before the group was to hold another meeting, the Republican negotiators abruptly pulled out of the talks. Here’s the rundown of what happened and why:
Who: Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), the Republican negotiators taking part in the bipartisan budget talks being led by Vice President Biden.
What: Republican negotiators bailing on the bipartisan talks being led by Vice President to avert an economically calamitous U.S. default on its obligations.
Why: Republicans offered two complaints today. The faux process complaint, offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor this morning, was that president has been not involved enough, which apparently somehow justifies the Republican negotiators becoming completely uninvolved.
Their substantive complaint was that Democrats are insisting on “tax hikes” to balance out the trillions in entitlement and other spending cuts being demanded by Republicans. What Republicans don’t tell you is that when they say “tax hikes,” they really mean things like closing tax loopholes and taking away the billions in wasteful subsidies lavished on Big Oil every year.
What’s really going on: Republicans are playing a game of political musical chairs, knowing full well that they will have to eventually concede to some revenue increases (e.g. a recent poll found that 64 percent of voters would be in favor of eliminating the oil tax breaks). It seems that Cantor would rather have Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), whom Cantor suggested needed to be brought in to resolve the tax issue, be the one without a chair when the music stops and a Republican leader has to agree to some revenue increases — something that is bitterly opposed by Boehner’s fractious, Tea Party-dominated caucus in the House of Representatives. The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein explains:
Cantor has the credibility with the Tea Party that Boehner lacks. But that’s why Cantor won’t cut the deal. The Tea Party-types support him because he’s the guy who won’t cut the deal. He can’t sign off on tax increases without losing his power base. But if he’s able to throw it back to Boehner, and Boehner cuts the deal, that’s all good for Cantor: Boehner becomes weaker and he becomes stronger. Which is why Boehner will also have trouble making this deal. It’ll mean he made the concessions that Cantor, the true conservative, didn’t. That’s not how he holds onto the gavel in this Republican Party.
[…]
Cantor is putting personal power before country here, and in a very dangerous way. If Boehner actually does manage to cut a decent deal despite Cantor’s effort to throw him under the bus, he may not hold on as leader of his party, but unlike Cantor, he’ll deserve to. For better or worse, this is when we learn whether anyone on the Republican Party’s leadership team is actually prepared to lead.
In one sentence: Republicans are not only willing to risk economic calamity to preserve billions in tax breaks for Big Oil, the wealthy, and other special interests, but now it seems they may also be willing to do so just to maintain their own personal political power.
Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed
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Koch-sponsored House energy chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) shills for the Keystone XL pipeline and Alaska drilling at the Heritage Foundation.
On Tuesday, a bill that would allow pesticide users to bypass the Clean Water Act and spray pesticides over waterways passed through the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
Is the jobs crisis Evan Bayh’s fault? The former governor and senator now has five jobs all to himself — a director of Fifth/ Third Bancorp, partner at lobbying firm McGuireWoods LLP, Fox News contributor, anti-regulation speaker for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and adviser to private equity firm Apollo Capital Management.
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The youth leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood broke from their party to form Egyptian Current Party, which advocates for a more centrist and liberal version of Islamist politics.
Key Democrats criticized President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan last night for falling short of his promise for more a more “significant” withdrawal.
2012 Watch: Herman Cain Accuses Jon Stewart of Targeting Him Because He’s Black
Via ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum, who was on the trail in Iowa this week and caught up with Herman Cain at several stops:
Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain told an audience in Pella, Iowa that he would not sign a bill longer than three pages. (Cain later said he was “exaggerating.”)
Jon Stewart picked up on the story, imitating Cain and joking that if Cain was president, he would require everything to be shorter: “Treaties will have to fit on the back of a cereal box … The State of the Union Address will be delivered in the form of a fortune cookie.” You can watch the segment here. (Chris Wallace later replayed the segment during Stewart’s appearance on Fox News Sunday.)
Speaking Wednesday at the Iowa Falls Fire Department, Herman Cain lashed out at Jon Stewart, claiming that Stewart was only targeting him “because I’m black.”
Numbers to Know: $1 TRILLION In Wasteful Tax Breaks We Could Do Without
Our Center for American Progress colleagues have identified over $1 trillion in wasteful tax breaks that we could eliminate in order to reduce the deficit — the same kind of wasteful tax breaks that the GOP is now defending by walking out of the budget talks. Take a look:
