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  McConnell Proposes Congress Punt Debt-Ceiling Power To Obama
by Frank James
NPR News

In a proposal that appears to be mostly about finding a way to raise the debt ceiling while protecting his fellow congressional Republicans from having to vote to do so, Sen. Mitch McConnell has suggested a way in which Congress could effectively give President Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling.

But it would also seem meant to potentially put Obama on the defensive by having him take the political heat for raising the debt ceiling. Repeated polls have found a majority of Americans opposed to a higher debt ceiling.

McConnell, the Senate's top Republican, is proposing a legislative maneuver that would give lawmakers the opportunity to reject a debt-ceiling increase.

Under McConnell's plan, a "resolution of disapproval" to boost the debt-limit by $2.5 trillion would be introduced in both chambers with a majority of lawmakers voting for the resolution. In other words, they would have the chance to vote against any increase.


Obama would then veto the resolution, a veto Congress would be unable to override with the required two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. That would allow the U.S. to legally go beyond its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and avoid a widely feared, first-ever general default by the U.S. government on its obligations.

A passage from a Politico article provides a sense of why senior Senate Republicans like the idea:

Originally Posted by Politico:

"It gives the president 100 percent of the responsibility for increasing the debt limit if he chooses not to have any spending reductions," Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Republican Conference chairman, told reporters Tuesday.

    How the plan will sit with House Republicans is unclear. But it offers an escape valve for those in the Senate GOP who fear that if the current crisis persists they will be forced to accept some tax revenue increases as part of any settlement.

Worth noting is that Congress generally guards its prerogatives jealously, stoutly resisting yielding this kind of power to a president.

The very fact that Senate Republicans are putting forward such a proposal could be read as a sign of their mounting anxiety about a possible default as the Aug. 2 deadline approaches.

It also suggests how much political gamesmanship is involved if Senate Republicans are now willing to hand over such power to Obama.

It appears to be a case of accepting a short-term loss if the long-term gain is to increase Obama's chances of being a one-term president. McConnell has said publicly that a one-term Obama is his goal.

It's not just about putting pressure on the president, of course, but on congressional Democrats.

McConnell's proposal would require several votes as the debt-ceiling would be increased in stages. That would mean congressional Democrats would have to go on record more than once with votes to increase the limit, if they decided to rally round their president. In short, it would a Republican political ad makers dream.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
  

Worth noting is that Congress generally guards its prerogatives jealously, stoutly resisting yielding this kind of power to a president.

yeah, that sure hasn't been the case since the close of WWII.

anyway, i think this is a smart move. first, for all the reasons already mentioned, but it's important noting that this is a "back up plan," of which there are many circulating. the first thing to remember is that some sort of deal WILL get done. no one want's even part of the blame for this thing not going through, and all the havok that would result. NO ONE. also, this proposed increase would come in three installments over the coming year, and be tied to an equal amount of cuts. i think this is incredibly fair.






In almost fiendishly clever fashion, McConnell is calling the president’s bluff. He is agreeing that the immediate crisis must be resolved, and so is taking steps to resolve it. And he is saying that the parties are just too far apart on questions of core principle to make a bigger deal.

McConnell’s ploy has the Left spluttering—”This proposal from McConnell is DC at its absolute worst. Screw solving problems; let’s see how to blame the other guy for my fecklessness,” writes one liberal think-tanker on Twitter. And it has some of the Right, notably Erick Erickson of Red State, screaming like banshees over McConnell’s “capitulation”—Erickson believing, apparently, that conservatives can somehow compel Obama and the Democrats, who hold the the majority in the Senate, to do their bidding.

The problem with the outrage is this: There is no consensus on deep spending cuts or tax increases. If it were otherwise, there would be a deal tonight.

Obama won’t say what spending cuts he will support; Republicans won’t say what form of tax increases they might accept. In other words, no deal is possible. The notion of using the threat of the debt ceiling to compel the other side to make a deal—originally a conservative conceit before Obama decided to use it for his own ends as well—was too clever by half. People can scream all they like, but some form of the McConnell proposal is what is almost certainly going to be the way we go. The 2012 election is the venue where this will all get sorted out.

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I must confess I'm a bit confused on how this works, but it sounds like he's threatening to abdicate a congressional responsibility explicitly delineated in Article I Sec. 8 of the US Constitution.

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Originally Posted by Bryant Platt:
I must confess I'm a bit confused on how this works, but it sounds like he's threatening to abdicate a congressional responsibility explicitly delineated in Article I Sec. 8 of the US Constitution.

but only through legislation, and only for one instance. he's using the system. all this is part of our laws. i believe it would be called a parliamentary maneuver.