Why the collapse of the Obama Boehner debt talks could be a good thing

According to an article written by Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico titled “Phone tag and wrong numbers: The collapse of the debt talks”, the talks fell apart for many different reasons yet I still find it hard to believe that given the dire circumstances this nation is in, any leader, regardless of party, would not do everything within their power to lead and not follow.

Ms. Brown’s article says that “President Barack Obama tried to get House Speaker John Boehner on the phone late Thursday, but never heard back. The silence continued into Friday, and White House aides began to wonder. It never took this long for the president to get his phone calls returned, particularly from Boehner. After all, the two chatted regularly, forging a working relationship over the many weeks of debt-ceiling negotiations — two men who were each trying to lead their parties someplace they didn’t really want to go.  Obama finally heard from Boehner’s office at 3:30 p.m. Friday: Expect a call in two hours.  No, the president responded, how about right now?  Not possible, Obama was told, the speaker isn’t available.  It was then that the White House knew the president wouldn’t be announcing a grand bargain on the debt and deficit anytime soon. Maybe never.”

Some experts like Lawrence O’Donnell says that the President was orchestrating this entire act because he had initially asked for a clean debt ceiling bill in the beginning and asking for an extra $400 billion dollars was a way to make sure that he got what he wanted.  While I am not as knowledgeable as Mr. O’Donnell, I have a slightly different take on the overall situation.

The McConnell-Reid proposal was a non-starter mainly because it only amounted to just kicking the can down the road instead of doing what all in Washington was sent to do.  Fix the problem.  Low and behold here comes the Gang of Six and at the time they re-entered the arena, focus was in the area of a grand bargain.  Their conservative agreements did not go as far as many wanted and at the time was seen as a compromise too far.  It would do the very same things that the grand bargain would have done but on a smaller scale.  Problems with the plan were few but the main issue was the origination of all bills having to do with revenue coming in the House of Representatives.  Obama-Boehner tentative agreements were something that the Republican House of Representatives could not swallow but now that many of those same dire-hard Tea Party Patriots were having their eyes opened by Wall Street.  This combined with the pressures of the real voters in their districts was enough to have some quietly saying yes to raise the debt ceiling.  Presenting them with a grand bargain which would make it harder for them to sell to those dire-hard patriots at home and the proposal of the Gang of Six which would make it easier to pass in the House was the only real option available.

The Gang of Six modified plan could now be said to be that of the House where it needed to be originated.  It has already gotten digested by those in the Senate and the votes should be there.  It passes the House on Monday and is picked up and passed in the Senate on Wednesday.  The debt ceiling is raised, debt reduction is achieved, disaster avoided, spending is cut and revenues are raised.  It still stings but not quite as bad as the nation losing its bond rating or the economy going over a cliff.  This raises then only one other question; what’s next?