Grasping Reality with Both Hands

Stan Collender:

The Dirty Secret About Today's "Clean" Debt Ceiling Vote: The House Republican leadership wants everyone to think that the expected large “no” vote this evening on a “clean” debt ceiling will demonstrate that there’s no support for increasing the government’s borrowing limit unless deficit reductions are attached.  That’s simply not true.... [A] debt ceiling increase with deficit reductions attached would also very likely... if not certainly... be rejected [by the House].  In other words, just because a debt ceiling increase that doesn’t include spending cuts or revenue increases can’t be adopted doesn’t automatically mean that, as the [House] leadership wants us to believe, a bill with them will pass.