Oh look. The Republicans are playing grabass with the debt ceiling.
Fresh off their election day sweep, top Republicans in Congress are already threatening a high-stakes gambit to block what has traditionally been a fairly routine move: changing the law to increase the total amount of debt the federal government is allowed take on. [...]
"I think it will not be without some strings attached if it happens, because they're going to have to seriously address spending and debt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News last week.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) suggested he'd like to see over $300 billion in spending cuts before he'd end a filibuster on the debt ceiling.
On NBC this weekend, Tea Party leader Jim DeMint (R-SC) joined in on the fun: "No, I won't. Not-- not unless this debt ceiling is combined with some path to balancing our budget: Returning to 2008 spending levels. Repealing Obamacare," DeMint said. "We have got to demonstrate that we have the resolve to cut spending."
So they're going to hold the debt ceiling as ransom in a game of high-stakes chicken with the White House. Nice. I'm sure they know that if the debt ceiling isn't routinely raised, the United States defaults on its loans causing a large-scale economic collapse.
Awww. Isn't it precious how much the Republicans care about America?