QOTD: Mitch McConnell
by digby
“I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.”
— Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post, on the debt ceiling negotiations.
On the same day, The Fix carried this headline:
Yeah, what do they know?
The White House is refusing to negotiate over raising the debt limit after the “mistake” of doing so in 2011, according to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
While Congress had previously used the debt limit to make arguments about fiscal policy, Lew argued on “Fox News Sunday” that the 2011 battle represented a dramatic change that cannot be repeated.
President Obama said in 2011 he wanted a “clean” debt limit increase without added policy proposals, but ultimately the debate was dragged into a broad fiscal fight that went down to the wire, resulting in the first-ever downgrade of the nation’s credit rating.
“It was a mistake in 2011 to have that debate, it hurt the economy,” Lew said on Sunday. “2011 was the first time there was a debate about whether or not to default, where there was one side actually arguing default could be managed, that’s just wrong.”
h/t to @sahilkapur