House Republicans Announce Big Plan to Ignore the Debt Ceiling and Hope It Goes Away

Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:19 am

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After telling the American people how important the debt ceiling is for nearly two years, House Republicans have decided to now ignore the debt ceiling and hope it goes away.

The Washington Post reported that, “Forget about raising the federal debt limit. House Republicans are proposing to ignore it altogether — at least until May 18. The House plans to vote Wednesday on a measure that would leave the $16.4 trillion debt limit intact but declare that it “shall not apply” from the date the measure passes until mid-May. This approach — novel in modern times — would let Republicans avoid a potentially disastrous fight over the debt limit without actually voting to let the Treasury borrow more money.”

After telling the country repeatedly that we must do something to get our spending under control, House Republicans have decided that none of that matters anymore. They have also determined that the debt ceiling which was supposed to be part of their grand scheme of political leverage to get the spending cuts that they they crave can be forgotten about.

I think House Republicans are trying to break up with the debt ceiling. Instead of having a mature talk about why their relationship isn’t working, House Republicans have decided to avoid the debt ceiling’s calls and texts. By ignoring it, House Republicans are hoping that the debt ceiling will move on and go away.

House Republicans have not only caved on the debt ceiling. They are disavowing the entire concept of a debt ceiling.

The GOP leadership is now banking on the idiotic scheme of refusing to pay members of Congress until the Senate passes a budget. What is really going on here is that House Republicans are running out of hostages. Republicans could revive the debt ceiling crisis again over the summer, but now that they have admitted that the debt ceiling isn’t really all that important, there is nowhere for them to go on the issue.

House Republicans are not only waving the white flag. They are setting the flag on fire, and hoping that the American people forget that they ever started this whole debt ceiling fight to begin with.

This isn’t a retreat by House Republicans. It’s a complete surrender.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association