The Boehner of Our Existence

(The following is published against the best advice of Napoleon Bonaparte: "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.")

U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R., Ohio) gave a speech on Monday, May 9th, 2011 before the Economic Club of New York, in which it appears that his will and his sanity have crumbled before the Joshua-like trumpets of the Tea Party:

"It's true that allowing America to default would be irresponsible," he said in reference to the upcoming House vote to raise the ceiling on our national debt, "But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt limit without simultaneously taking dramatic steps to reduce spending and to reform the budget process."

No, invading and occupying a country that posed no threat to our national security would be "irresponsible". If the debt ceiling isn't hoisted up in time, and the U.S. defaults on its credit obligations, it would be financially even worse than that (which is obviously hard to fathom).

"If America were to default," says Roger Altman, a former Treasury official under President Clinton, "even for 24 hours, that would have an unprecedented and a catastrophic impact on global financial markets and on American markets." Yup. It would.

Does anybody wonder where Speaker Boehner's outrage about spending was during the previous administration? Those books didn't seem to cause so much panic without the funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan included in the bottom line. Funding these conflicts through separate (ahem) spending bills that were excluded from the regular budget maintained deficits that were only in the half-a-trillion-a-year range. This was perfectly acceptable to conservative lawmakers and voters alike.

What's changed, then? Some say it was the alarming influence of the Tea Partiers, comprised largely of little old people who don't want to ever see their taxes go up (although they're happy to cash their inflated Social Security checks whenever they get a bump). They see President Obama as one whose policies will increase their share of the burdens that we all, as Americans, face.

Never mind that they wouldn't be the targets of the Democrats in that regard, even if the average tea-bagger is either already on Medicare or coming in for a landing. And while Boehner lip-synced a few sentences about reducing Medicare, he also said (as he always does, probably even when saying Grace), "Tax hikes should be off the table."

Those who are now so eager to slash spending are beginning to notice that the same old folks who are bull-horning about the deficit are actually the ones who benefit the most from government spending - excluding, of course, defense contractors. These sacred (consider that a typo if you must) cows can only dodge the meat axe for so long.

Republicans in office have to appeal to those same Margin of Error voters even as they take aim at their entitlements, so they'll propose trillions of dollars in cuts knowing that the Democrats in the Senate would never let such a deal reach the Oval Office, shielding Obama from having his veto signature attached to a government default. Whichever way the ball bounces, they figure they'll have something to hang on the liberals.

However, in playing chicken with the debt ceiling, the GOP has spooked an even more important constituency of theirs: Big Business. The U.S. going into default would upset the apple cart on a global scale, and these captains of industry are still bailing out their yachts from the last financial disaster (see Bush). Although they are fewer in number, the CEO-set whose signatures adorn so many checks to the Republican Party have a little more clout than a bunch of suddenly-wannabe-patriots rallying on government property - in the warmer months - and a hell of a lot more to lose.

The Republicans chose this devil's dance, and they are poised to find out exactly what happens after violating one of humanity's oldest social norms... The one about not biting the hand that feeds you.

pH 5.1o.11