Are the debt hawks about to blink?

Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Are the debt hawks about to blink?

So many brave sound bites: Government should spend only what it takes in. We’ll never vote to increase the debt — so many bold statements, and I was looking forward to August 2nd when we would hit the debt limit and find out exactly what it’s like for the government to finally spend only what it takes in.

I assumed that’s why the debt hawks were brave enough to keep walking away from a debt deal with the President. Because they were confident Americans were ready for smaller government.

But then yesterday the President told CBS’s Scott Pelley what “smaller government” might mean for ALL those government checks, including Social Security:

Pelley: Can you guarantee as President those checks will go out on August 3?

Obama: I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3 if we haven’t resolved this issue.

And suddenly, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called in reporters to announce that he had discovered a way for Congress to raise the debt limit — by voting AGAINST raising the debt limit. The president would send his request:

“He would send up a request of us to raise the debt ceiling. That would be subject to a resolution of disapproval. That resolution of disapproval if passed, presumably he would veto it.”

Get it? The President requests a big debt increase, the Senate then passes a resolution of DISAPPROVAL, so that all the debt hawks can bravely vote to DISAPPROVE, the President then VETOES the resolution of disapproval, and since it only takes 34 senators to sustain his veto, the DISAPPROVAL fails, the debt limit goes up, and we wake up the next day to discover this was never about the debt…this was about finding a way to make NO mean YES.

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