The Daily Beast
Andrew Sullivan's The Dish
If America Defaults, Who Gets The Blame?
From this side of the Atlantic, the great game of chicken now being played by the American political class with the debt ceiling is regarded as a sign that America - or rather, America's Republicans - has gone completely insane. Everyone in Europe is desperately trying to stave off default - and here is the most powerful economy on earth actually hoping for it! When I explain the details of Obama's last Grand Bargain - a debt reduction built on a ration of 3:1 spending cuts and tax increases - most Brits see it as a Cameron-conservative-style austerity measure, They simply cannot understand why the GOP doesn't take what would for any sane conservative in any civilized country be a no-brainer. I'm reduced to trying to explain what passes for "conservatism" in America is nothing of the kind - just know-nothing, fundamentalist, Manichean pseudo-conservatism. From this distance, the GOP seems even loonier, crazier and more reckless than they do stateside.
My own view, however, is that Obama badly bungled this by not embracing his current position in the State of the Union and pummeling the GOP with it for months. Bowles Simpson was his commission after all, and yet he dropped it like a stone and pandered to his left when he had a perfect moment to pivot to the debt question. Giving the GOP any credibility on debt by offering nothing of real $4 trillion substance until last week may well be seen as Obama's greatest mistake in his first term. Now that he has finally offered it, his ability to maintain the high ground on a fair measure to tackle the deficit is much reduced from his January possibility. This is not a meep-meep moment. And it could easily have been, if Obama had shown, yes, courage sooner.
Nate Silver thinks both parties would take a hit if default occurs - something that Obama's dilatory cowardice made possible. Brendan Nyhan counters:
Both sides would no doubt blame each other for the outcome and create elaborate stories about why the other side is to blame, which would then be reinforced and amplified in the press. Then more than a year would elapse before November 2012, and both sides would continue to blame each other for failing to adequately address the consequences of the default. In the meantime, many people will forget the details of what happened, but will know that Obama is the president and the economy is in bad shape. Under those conditions, how likely is it that people who would normally blame Obama for the poor economy will instead blame the GOP when they show up at the polls?
Agreed. On this score, leading from behind has been pretty much a disaster. And there is no longer much time to lead from the front.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/07/if-america-defaults-who-gets-the-blame.html
No comments:
Post a Comment