Republicans Want to Hold the Debt Ceiling Hostage Without Looking Completely Insane

Good Luck With That.

by Jordan Weissmann

McClintock, the main sponsor of a bill designed to give Republicans cover while bringing the United States to the brink of a disastrous default.

The Republican cabal has a problem (well, many, but we're focusing on one today). The U.S. government is set to hit its borrowing limit in about two weeks, and lunatic fringe hardline wingnuts in Congress have yet again decided that they would like to threaten a catastrophic national default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless President Obama agrees to major policy concessions. The first time the Republican cabal tried this kamikaze tactic in 2011, it worked fairly well, as the White House eventually agreed to major spending cuts to avoid a crisis. But when the cabal tried to repeat the trick in 2013, the effort ended in acrimonious failure as Obama chose not to negotiate and the public placed somewhat more blame on Republicans than Democrats for the standoff. More