Miss McConnell Has A Hissy Fit On Fox News-- Threatens Apocalypse

Boehner: "If we were to fail to increase the debt limit, we would send our economy into a tailspin." Wall Street's guy in the House, Paul Ryan said failure it raise the ceiling is "unworkable... obviously you can't default". That was March 4th. Apparently things have changed in Republicanville in the last 10 days. McConnell, who slipped up several months ago and publicly admitted that his #1 job over the next two years is to do everything in his power to undermine and politically defeat President Obama-- implying that the well-being of the United States and the American people must take a backseat to his partisan ambitions-- is attempting to make the debt ceiling into a fundraising opportunity for the Republican Party.

And one of his devious and wily-- if clueless-- henchmen, John Cornyn of Texas (and the NRSC) is rubbing his hands in glee, via Twitter:


Miss McConnell on Fox News Sunday: "There are 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans. My prediction is not a single one of the 47 Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes with it some credible effort to do something about our debt. I think to get any of the 47 Republicans, you've got to do something credible-- that the markets believe is credible, that the American people believe is credible, that foreign countries believe is credible-- in addition to raising the debt ceiling."

Gee, it wasn't that long ago that another of the Senate's closeted Republican showboaters, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was insisting that a failure to raise the debut ceiling would bring about "financial collapse and calamity throughout the world." Is it possible that the GOP has decided that all that is just collateral damage in their anti-Obama crusade?

Failure to raise the debt ceiling would not only likely result in a government shutdown and weaker financial markets, and-- as Center For American Progress’s David Min points out — higher interest costs on U.S. debt would ultimately make the long-term budget situation “even more problematic.”

Republicans have certainly received clear warning. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently warned Republican lawmakers not to “play around with” raising the debt ceiling and use it as a “bargaining chip.” President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austin Goolsbee said, “If we get to the point where you’ve damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.” But, as the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benan notes, Senate Republicans insists on the position of “do what I want,” or “I’ll cause catastrophe on purpose.”