Eliot Spitzer: President Obama Just Lost His Leverage on the Debt Ceiling

[marmar]

from Slate:


President Obama Just Lost His Leverage on the Debt Ceiling
By Eliot Spitzer | Posted Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, at 6:11 PM ET


Second guessing is oh so easy, and I always looked askance at those outside the negotiating room who had wisdom after the fact. But having said that …

Why did the president agree to a deal without the debt ceiling being lifted? Didn’t we play this script out once before? And didn’t the president, since he needs to be reasonable, in the end cave to Republicans who used the debt ceiling to extract concessions that shouldn’t have been granted?

This was the president’s moment of greatest leverage. The White House could have said to the House: Take us over the fiscal cliff, go ahead and have all taxes go up. You will suffer the wrath of the public—and for what? All we are demanding is that you eliminate a negotiation that will do enormous harm to the nation, a negotiation about the debt ceiling that merely authorizes us to borrow to pay for the expenditures you have voted for.

Having won the rhetorical debate about raising taxes on the wealthy, the president could have framed the debt-ceiling argument in an equally compelling way. All eyes would have been on the House of Representatives. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/spitzer/2013/01/02/obama_caved_on_fiscal_cliff_negotiations_he_should_have_insisted_on_raising.html

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. Why is a former AG ...

talking about "leverage" rather than extortion?

[still_one]

2. He has the same leverage he had before with the house

[Jefferson23]

3. Obama's convictions are what, exactly?

From the OP:

Now we will face a much tougher moment. The House will demand a series of deep entitlement cuts in return for lifting the debt ceiling, and the president will have little to offer or demand in return. It is hard to imagine that even he thinks he will get the House to raise taxes again.

So what did we get that was worth leaving the debt-ceiling issue unresolved? Very little. Thin soup at best: little revenue, no grand bargain sufficient to calm demands for deeper cuts in entitlements, and a payroll tax increase that will still lead to a net increase in taxes for the middle class.

We should savor the brief moment of perceived victory that the cliff deal has created, because there is going to be much pain in the coming weeks over the debt ceiling.


K&R

[OldDem2012]

4. Spitzer knows more about call girls than he does about politics. nt.

[Buzz Clik]

7. Careerwise, he really should follow his passion.

[HiPointDem]

12. Try arguing against what he says rather than attacking him personally & i might be more convinced.

cheap shots degrade the person who takes them.

[tularetom]

5. I keep hearing that but I don't believe it

He still has the bully pulpit and he's finally learning how to use it.

And he has 3 months to paint the republicans as the people who want to allow the country to weasel out of the obligations that they (republicans) contracted.

Spending cuts? The defense budget is loaded with opportunities to make some. And the public wants them to be made there.

If he plays his cards right he hasn't lost any leverage at all.

[Thinkingabout]

6. I am wondering if Obama's statement did not mean he will invoke the 14th Amendment to pay the bills

After all, President Obama is a Constitutional scholar and probably understands the Constitution much better than most current members of Congress. If he does over ride Congress on this the TP will be very angry but Obama will be about governing unlike the crazy TP.

[krawhitham]

15. BINGO

He could not do it before because he had to get re-elected

[GoCubsGo]

21. Yep, it is all the "leverage" he needs.

[patrice]

8. Well, that IS Eliot f-ing Spitzer, but I'm still puzzled as to why he'd think it would

have to be the President creating the pressure in the next round for the debt ceiling.

Why do so many experts seem to think that Americans across the whole political spectrum will stand for cuts to Social Security and/or Medicare? Do they really expect Americans to sell out their own families, so that Republicans can make a political point about the debt ceiling?

What don't I get here? please.

[A Simple Game]

11. Why do experts think Americans will stand for cuts to Social Security and Medicare?

Probably because they have been reading DU.

Many here think chained CPI is the perfect thing to fix Social Security, and there is not a thing wrong with means testing.

[patrice]

16. Well, I was thinking about the real world; there's plenty of stuff here that I don't

take at face value.

Sometimes people are just thinking things through, sometimes they are experimenting, and often they are messing with others.

[HiPointDem]

13. Because they have in the past?

[Bandit]

18. If "Americans across the whole political spectrum" truly cared Republicans would not control

The House... Americans don't pay that close attention and will believe "their side" long before they will accept the truth....

[PSPS]

9. Obama's statements of late about this indicate to me that he'll go the 14th Amendment route.

The House, which is where all spending measures must originate, has already authorized the expenditures. So, by doing so, they have already authorized increasing the debt limit.

[Skittles]

10. lost? GAVE

[TheKentuckian]

14. There is the 1:1 ratio

As long as it stuck to like an Alabama tick and scoring insisted upon to even put it on the table how much revenue can the TeaPubliKlans put up to get the cuts they want?

You have to play it hardline but if you do, I'd love to see the plan they could forward to pass the muster.

You also don't "pre-negotiate" a fucking thing. They bring the plan and we pick it apart, no voodoo mathematics.

[Octafish]

17. Why the Washington Establishment HATES Spitzer...

When it comes to money and politics, he tells the truth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/07/09/eliot-spitzer-wall-street-libor_n_1655260.html

If he was puke or new-fashioned Dem and didn't go after the crooks on Wall Street, the press corpse would overlook his prostitute thing.

[bigtree]

19. brother! He's got it, he doesn't . . .

. . . what the fuck does Spitzer know? What, he's a paid media head now?

When did he ever work to manage a legislature; steer a bill? Just STFU. I'm tired of all of these whiners thinking they're soooo brilliant second-guessing this WH. Just STFU.

[jwirr]

20. IMO we are his leverage. In one of his speeches he told us we need to stay involved and that is

exactly what will make the difference.