7.28.13: Over the Limit

(Anthony Weiner Comment below)

Whether of not you agree with the president's economic agenda or not as outlined by Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, there is one thing he said that is certainly true, which is that Americans are tired of self-made crises in Washington DC.  However, sure enough (every one of today's guests conceded the point) we're going to have a fiscal fight in September when the Congress is set to vote of the debt limit. 

As discussed, the president has hardened his position that he is not going to allow deep cuts in domestic programs for a debt ceiling deal while conversely, Speaker John Boehner is on record saying that the debt ceiling will not be raised without real spending cuts.  With these two dug-in positions, you have to ask who has the leverage, the higher ground?  Given Mr. Boehner's abysmal record so far as the Speaker, it's difficult to take what he says seriously because on any given issue, he is unable to rally his caucus, a caucus that has been unwilling to compromise with the Democratic party and more specifically the president.  For his trouble, the president hasn't offered anything new with regard to his economic agenda, something for which the Washington press corps has knocked him, but the reason for that is because he hasn't gotten much of his agenda through.  Despite that, the economy has come back, be it modestly overall - 2 percent.  Even Maria Bartiromo, a fiscal conservative, nodded her head in agreement when David Axelrod asserted that the antics in Washington [Republican brinksmanship] is what is holding us back economically.

Compromise isn't an option at this point, something that everyone knows, so what's going to happen?

We find it hard to believe that the Republican-led House would willfully default on our debt thus tanking the economy by not raising the debt ceiling.  The reasoning for this statement is obvious because you think to yourself that no one would in their right mind would do that.  However, given the unpredictability of the House Republicans, we can not be 100 percent sure and therein lays the problem  It's the same trepidation that big business feels - they're not a 100 percent sure the Republicans won't tank the economy - and that's the reason they're not investing back in the United States the great amount of capital they've accumulated.

Secretary Lew wouldn't answer Mr. Gregory's question as to whether or not the president would go to the brink on the economy in a debt ceiling fight, and frankly, he didn't have to.  From the administration's point of view, they'd prefer an up or down vote on the debt ceiling extension.  It's John Boehner who is playing the brinksmanship game because he's the one who has put conditions on even having the vote. One of those conditions is to completely defund the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), which is not going to happen.

Mike Murphy stupidly said that the president has to make a painful ideological move [to the right] if we're ever to move forward, but why would he ever do that knowing full well that Republicans wouldn't make any such shift themselves. 

Bottom line is that the Republicans will be blamed if there is a government shutdown. And we don't know about you but that means that we've defaulted on our debt and now we're all just deadbeats.

The backlash will come from all sides including from establishment conservatives in of the business and intellectual communities who may line up hard against the extreme ideologues, who simply don't understand that governing isn't a proposition of 'all or nothing' but one of 'more or less.'  However, if they are not there to govern as many of them either confess or suggest, then they also don't understand that Republicans have the leverage to obtain 'more' in the equation. They could get the Keystone Pipeline and long-term cuts as Harold Ford suggested or the tax reform and lowering of the corporate tax as Ms. Bartiromo outlined.

Even given all the acrimony, you would think that lawmakers would come together on infrastructure and energy, but it's not to be.  Mr. Lew threw out a significant statement that was left out there in the wind by Mr. Gregory (and the media at large), which is defense funding and the cutting of domestic programs to accomplish it.  It's a larger conversation that we're not having as a country, but it is money that should be shifted to those two aforementioned sectors - energy and infrastructure.  Enough of the build up abroad, how about it at home.  It would go a long way in solving the growing crisis of income inequality (more on this to come in a separate column) in this country.

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Never mind that Anthony Weiner's private sexual proclivities are flat out creepy and completely inappropriate for someone seeking high office, it's his public record that is almost as offensive.  Democratic mayoral candidate City Council Speaker Christine Quinn pointed out that in 12 years in Congress, Anthony Weiner passed one bill.  In 2000, members of Congress were paid $141,000 and have given themselves a raise just about every year since.  As taxpayers' we invested about $2 million in Anthony Weiner over 12 years and we have one bill to show for it - the facts amongst the farce.

The point is that there is no redeeming quality to his candidacy in the slightest.  What more can you say when just on today's program you hear words and phrases such as: absurd, reckless behavior, beyond the pale, delusional, shameful, disrespectful to voters, and insulting to describe Mr. Weiner's behavior.

Here's our message to Mr. Weiner - if you really care about New York City and its residents then stop embarrassing them and leave the race.

And as far as that clown in San Diego, Bob Fillner, is concerned, sexual harassment in the work place is an offense subject to immediate termination so why does he get to decide whether he stays or goes?  He admitted his behavior has been going on for years - disgraceful. 


Roundtable: former top strategist for President Obama, now NBC Senior Political Analyst David Axelrod; Host of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Maria Bartiromo; GOP strategist Mike Murphy; and former Democratic Congressman from Tennessee, Harold Ford.