DEAD DEBT DEBATE – AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  America is set to default on its debts this coming Tuesday...at least that's what the papers say.  Right now there is no plan on the table in Congress that has any chance of passing.  From Bloomberg:

House Republican leaders, four days before a threatened U.S. default and facing stiff resistance within their ranks to raising the U.S. debt ceiling, plan to make a second try at passing legislation that is headed for a Senate roadblock.

Republicans led by House Speaker John Boehner were forced to scrap action on the measure late last night. They are considering a rewrite for a second time this week after face-to- face meetings with recalcitrant lawmakers failed to yield the votes to push it through the House.

Skeptics concerned that the plan wouldn’t do enough to rein in the debt were insisting on conditioning part of the borrowing boost on congressional passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

The measure should be amended to “something transformative that transcends election cycles and has some degree of permanency to it,” said Republican Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a freshman opponent of the measure who met with House leaders for three hours last night as they struggled unsuccessfully to build support for the bill.

The delay was a setback for Boehner and his leadership team, forcing them to delay a vote until today. They implored Republicans to back a measure that President Barack Obama’s advisers have said he would veto and Senate leaders promised to quickly defeat. 

COMMENT:  It is a complete mess.  The president, reduced to observer status in the cheap seats, has essentially been escorted out of the debate.  The Dems have no real plan to deal with our vast overspending. 

Speaker Boehner has done good work trying to fashion a compromise, while maintaining national defense, but has failed to convince enough of his Republican flock to back it.  His plan is far from perfect, but is the best one presented thus far that has any chance of being used as the basis for practical negotiations.

I admire much of what the Tea Party has done in bringing our profligacy to the fore as a major issue, but the Tea Party is a movement, not a political party.  It has no responsibility for governing, and acts accordingly.  Today, major Tea Party leaders have begun to threaten Republican congressmen who are supporting Boehner.  Real cute.  Real smart.  Why not divide the GOP even further and let Obama walk into a second term?  These are people who relish their own purity the night after they lose elections.  I'd prefer a little impurity and a victory in 2012.

As for a balanced budget amendment, it has no chance whatever.  It is something to be taken up later, when we see a realistic end to the current fiscal crisis.

There are some who argue that this is a golden moment to correct the mistakes of the past.  It is not.  It is a serious crisis that must be dealt with to avoid this nation going into default, prompting a possible new recession, and certainly prompting a downgrading of our credit status.  Then, after the immediate problem is solved, Republicans and Democrats of good will must get down to work, 'round the clock, and fashion long-term plans to save this country economically.  And Republicans must unite for victory. 

If we had a real president, this could have been avoided.  The presidency, as Jack Kennedy said, is the center of action.  It is the central pivot in time of crisis.  This president, a glorified town councilman with a golden voice, has abdicated. 

July 29, 2011