Karl Rove's Perspective On The Latest Debt Ceiling Maneuvering

As I suspected, and wrote in yesterday's post, the Senate's 'Gang of Six' so-called proposal for a debt limit increase has been roundly criticized by even other Senators as incapable of being written into law before Wonderboy's self-imposed August 2nd deadline.

Both Rand Paul and Jim DeMint have explained that there's not a hope in hell of all the legislative detail being negotiated on all the aspects of the Gang's detail-less grand bargain.

Karl Rove noted in his Thursday Wall Street Journal column that this suits the First Rookie just fine. Promises of future spending cuts, unspecified tax and entitlement reforms to be explained later is a plan he can sign up for. So he gave a special press conference just to announce it.

Rove, however, threw his weight behind Paul Ryan's GOP House members. He points out that they have passed the only legitimate bill to raise the debt limit, this week's Cut, Cap and Balanced bill. Harry Reid's so fearful of it he refused to schedule debate or a vote on it in the Senate, then called on Democratic Senators to filibuster it, should it make it to the floor for discussion.

Rove went on to advise that the House GOP push harder in these last days, adding the various tax reforms which Wonderboy has nattered on about for weeks, and are now the subject of several left-wing cable television ads. Doing so, Rove points out, will disarm the liberals opposing the House bill, while adding yet more pressure on the president and the Democratically-controlled Senate.

Rove, Jim DeMint and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris all stress that the House GOP must prepare themselves to be more vocal as they sell their accomplishments to voters and stress that Wonderboy and the Senate offer no detailed plans in opposition. Throughout all of the hoopla over the debt limit, as Paul Ryan has said several times, the president has not once provided a detailed plan for spending cuts, tax reforms, or anything associated with raising the debt limit. He's been, predictably, all talk and no action.

Worse, he's threatened to stop paying debt interest, Social Security obligations and military compensation, to raise the ante. But all Congressional Republicans whom I've heard speak assert that doing so is the president's choice, but not necessary. Further, some House GOP members are talking of including 'must-pay' language in a subsequent debt limit increase bill.

Just as he let Frisco Nan write the stimulus health care bills, Wonderboy is now gravitating to Kent Conrad's vapor-bill. Conrad attempted to silence critics by claiming that they are trying to kill his 'plan' before learning more about it, but that's simply untrue. There are no details to it- that's why Democrats want to support it.

Let's hope Paul Ryan, John Boehner and Eric Cantor are listening to Rove, DeMint, Rand and their ilk and continue to press their advantage without caving in to Democratic demands for higher taxes and unspecified future spending cuts in exchange for a debt ceiling increase.