JustOneMinute

Saturday AM

The bear is loose all right and we have neither the people nor the plan to contain him.

Alternative Visions

Erick Erickson at RedState explains that now is the time for House Republicans to stand up and be counted.

Megan McArdle explains that now is the time for them to stand down and avoid a default debacle.

Politico discusses some of the ideas floating around the House:

With the Aug. 2 deadline rapidly approaching, Republicans expect to spend the second meeting telling their leaders what they’d like to see pass alongside the debt-limit hike.

A plan to cut spending, put caps on future expenditures and pass a constitutional amendment to balance the budget is certain to come up, lawmakers said. Also on the unofficial agenda of lawmakers are several bills to force the president to prioritize payments if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling.

In fact, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act is one that’s gaining steam on Capitol Hill. McConnell, who has become the subject of ire from the right in recent days, expressed support for the plan Thursday. His support could increase the likelihood that his legislation is coupled with the cut, cap and balance idea — or something like it — to attract enough support to avert an early-August catastrophe. GOP lawmakers hoped their leadership would put pressure on the president to bring along Democrats to pass their balanced-budget amendment. In its current form, most Democrats say they won’t vote for the legislation because it sets a supermajority threshold to raise taxes.

Somewhere I saw the suggestion that the House should pass the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts identifed in the Biden talks, raise the debt ceiling by a similar amount, and pass the chalice to the Senate.  That would certainly carry us past the August deadline, and Senate Democrats could decide whether to hold the economy hostage or take the small deal; Obama could then be presented with the same decision.

Or, in Krauthammer's version, the House could pass a $500 billion increase with $500 billion in cuts - he claims that would carry us for five months.  I do like this:

President Obama is demanding a big long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”

How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?

A foolish consistency is not our current President's hobgoblin.