GOP Senator: Maybe We Shouldn't Have Tied Debt Vote To Deficit Deal (VIDEO)

WASHINGTON -- Some Republicans are starting to have buyer's remorse over their party's insistence that a vote to raise the debt limit be tied to a long-term deficit reduction package.

"Maybe the debt ceiling was the wrong place to pick a fight, as it related to trying to get our country's house in order," Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Thursday. "Maybe that was the wrong place to do it."

Speaking from the Senate floor, Corker said Republicans demanded linking the two issues because the Senate hasn't passed a budget in more than 800 days. "I credit both sides for that," he said. But now, the inability of the White House and Congress to agree to a spending deal -- and ensure a timely debt ceiling increase -- is "helping our great nation go into decline."

For months, House and Senate GOP leaders have vowed not to raise the debt limit without tying the vote to substantial deficit reduction. The White House and Democratic leaders initially protested, citing grave economic consequences of toying with a debt-ceiling hike. But they eventually acquiesced as Republican leaders made it clear they weren't budging.

“To increase the debt limit without simultaneously addressing the drivers of our debt, in defiance of the will of our people, would be monumentally arrogant and massively irresponsible," Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in May at the Economic Club of New York.

“So let me be as clear as I can be: Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt limit increase. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in debt authority the president is given," he continued.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in March threatened that Republicans wouldn't raise the debt limit unless it was tied to a "credible effort" to shrink the nation's overall debt.

"I don't intend to support raising the debt ceiling, and I don't believe any Senate Republicans do, unless we do something important related to spending and debt," McConnell said on "Fox News Sunday."

"It is going to have to carry something with it that the markets, foreign countries and the American people believe is a credible effort to get a handle on spending and the debt effort."

As it stands, the Treasury has estimated that the government will run out of money to pay its bills on August 2. Negotiators still don't have a plan to prevent that from happening. That stark reality is already having real consequences: Moody's warned on Wednesday that the United States may lose its top credit rating if negotiators can't reach agreement soon. Standard & Poor's has reportedly warned lawmakers privately that the firm could also lower its rating of the government's debt if a deal does not materialize soon, according to Reuters.

During his Senate remarks, Corker said the dozen Senators from both parties that he had dinner with on Monday all expressed "tremendous frustration" with the way electoral politics have taken hold in the Senate as a potential debt default looms.

"I won't mention their names, to impugn them in any way," the Tennessee Republican added, referring to his dinner company. But all agreed that "most Senators in this body are nothing but two-bit pawns ... as a political fight is under way, basically, to lay out the groundwork, if you will, for 2012 elections."

Comments

[mollysmomma]

09:44 AM on 07/22/2011

we need to send e mails to the white house and call the white house and tell President Obama that we do understand cuts have to be made....if cuts have to be made.....then he should hold fim and demand that the tax cuts for the rich are removed. fair is fair. i have sent emails and will continue to and i have been trying to get through to the white house by phone, but the line is always busy....others must be calling....lets do this and try to prevent disaster!

[CubanPeter]

11:15 AM on 07/17/2011

"Some senators are two-bit pawns" Truer words have never been spoken. Come on repubs, tell your politicians to quit jeopordizing all of our futures, before it is too late.

[chergoyle3]

10:33 AM on 07/17/2011

Politicians and voters alike have not yet learned that if you lie down with demagogues, you rise up with a flesh-eating virus that will strip America of its health, security, intellect, decency and honor. The cure is a BS meter attached to every candidate for every office. If they cannot tell you how they will preserve mother's milk, apple pie and the Constitution, ignore them and find someone who has a plan with a reasonable chance of working.

[Matthew McKinnon]

08:05 AM on 07/17/2011

Clinton left a surplus. A decade of tax cuts to the rich did this and unless you are a moron it obviously didn't create jobs. How about having everyone and every corporation pay their fair share, then put ALL of the rest of us back to work so we have an income to pay taxes on!! The facts are: 1. we have real unemployment of over 20%, 2. declining unionization therefore declining middle class income (think declining spending by folk who do spend a majority of income that could put people to work), 3. the 400 wealthiest families in America pay taxes at an average rate of 16.8% (if you make $28,500 you pay at a higher rate) 4. Insanely substandard trade agreements and total inaction on trade cheats and currency manipulation (we manufactured our way to an exploding economy that wiped out a deficit that was 125% of GNP after WWII & the Great Depression). Corker this is not just the wrong fight in the inside the beltway gamesmanship. It's not a game, it's our lives! You, the Republican caucus and the Limousine faction of the Democratic Party are on the wrong track! We have had enough!

[cornell0673]

11:04 AM on 07/16/2011

why is now the time to take a stance, why wasnt it time from 2000-2008 when they reduced revenues. i dont get it, it seems that everyones toloerance level has been reduced with long term issues in the last 3 years

[joeyfoto]

02:02 AM on 07/16/2011

This GOP is the most degenerate political party in my lifetime. The have their dumbest and least responsible members speaking for them, while anyone with an IQ above room-temperature is called a RINO. Their goal is to defeat President Obama not to restore jobs to a suffering America and they're not even smart enough to conceal their intentions.

If the Tea Party was a group of economic conservatives, then the far right evangelicals have hijacked their 15 minutes of fave into a anti-abortion / anti-voting rights / anti-gay rights putsch. All and all, this Republican Party represents the politics of failure for the party and for America.

PS. I mention again that I have been a registered member of that Republican Party since I volunteered in the Goldwater campaign. I find none of the rational conservative principles upon which I based my association with the GOP, visible in this degenerate and hysterical political party.

[Saltheplumber]

01:06 PM on 07/16/2011

Amen to your comments about the "Modern " GOP (Gatheringh of Phonies) So why do you still identify yourself as a Republican?

[falconfordd]

01:19 AM on 07/16/2011

If I was president, and congress caused a default on the debt, the first thing I would do is order treasury to continue paying the debt. The second thing would be to order treasury to disburse NO money to the districts of any congressman that voted against raising the debt limit. That should keep the government going long enough for them to call another vote and pass it uncontested.

[mollysmomma]

09:54 AM on 07/22/2011

you need to e mail that post to the President.....i think it is a great idea!

[ShamusNYC]

10:43 PM on 07/15/2011

Perhaps if they actually did things that were in the best interest for the people rather than taking positions that make them look good in sound bites they might not be in this jam.

[Stealthboxer]

07:57 PM on 07/15/2011

At least Corker, as Republicans go, appears to be honest and say what is really happening-now why doesn't he get a backbone and try and be part of the SOLUTION

[icanhasstupid]

01:32 AM on 07/16/2011

Agreed. That said, here is his webpage. Send him an email telling him to move closer to the center (and to tell the other members of his party to get it together too).

http://corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe

[mcmutter]

07:04 PM on 07/15/2011

one day mcconnell will just move back to china with his in-laws ...

[den1953]

04:57 PM on 07/15/2011

So much for the President will give the Republicans everything they wanted?

[jsgaetano]

04:03 PM on 07/15/2011

Guess the Teabaggers aren't as good at this Hopey Changey thing as they told everyone they would be.

[OleLadySquawking]

03:12 PM on 07/15/2011

The GOP is ready to sell the greatest country in the world down the river in order to keep 3% of its population from having their taxes raised back to Clinton era levels. That's not standing on principles, that's outright lunacy, and the ones that are going to suffer the biggest hit from doing it are the other 97% of us.

[Jack Lantern]

01:09 PM on 07/15/2011

The GOP and Tea Party were "resolute" in their demands to link these two things in an effort to bring President Obama's Presidency down. They've failed.

The one's who look like they're the most focused on 2012 is the Republican party, because they are. It's a laser focus to lynch the black guy. Come on Corker, admit what everyone sees...you folks are out of your minds to get him out of office, to the point of self destruction. Well, you're getting what you've earned and let me personally thank you for destroying my retirement and economic future in the process.

Lovely.

[pamie0424]

12:42 PM on 07/15/2011

What I don't understand is how their "corporate masters" let things get this far without reigning these guys in....a default will hurt Wall Street, the banks and corporations. They need to yank those chains harder.

[Arwn Alwa]

01:11 PM on 07/15/2011

because their corporate masters have already moved all their assets into safer places than the US economy and people. Was it Bechtel or Halliburton that moved their headquarters (and Dick Cheney's office) to Dubhai?
just asking.

[UnRed]

01:59 PM on 07/15/2011

Because until the crisis occurs, it is not a crisis; it is just talk.

This can go one of 2 ways. EITHER they crash the economy and Cantor et. al. make a bundle shorting the market OR they reach an 11th hour agreement and the bounce to the market carries everything to new levels.

So which is it? The market now shows the way but it won't be clear for awhile. The bounce now MIGHT be Smart Money selling into this buying...in which case the fix is in for the crash...but it does not LOOK like this is the case. Nope, what this looks like is this is that there isn't a lot of selling going on. Take a look at the market before the Bush economic depression and you'll see shorting like mad...crazy, crazy shorting. That is not the case now.

So what's gonna happen? Things look up to me, which means a deal and a win-win for everyone. Except, of course T-Baggers, but that is actually a win for the Republican party.