The Debt-Limit Debate: Call it a Day and a Win GOP

Am I suggesting the GOP House Tea Party Caucus should hold their nose and vote for the Boehner debt-limit plan?

Yes, if you want to beat President Obama in 2012.

The debt-limit debate is heading toward a culmination, with President Obama reduced to pleading for the public to support a tax increase and Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid releasing competing plans that are the next-to-last realistic options. The question now is whether House Republicans are going to help Mr. Boehner achieve significant progress, or, in the name of the unachievable, hand Mr. Obama a victory.

Mr. Obama recognizes these stakes, threatening yesterday to veto the Boehner plan in a tactical move to block any Democratic support. The White House is afraid that it will pass the House and then become the only debt-ceiling vehicle if Mr. Reid can’t get 60 votes for his own proposal in the Senate. This would short-circuit Mr. Obama’s plan to blame the GOP for a U.S. credit downgrade, any market turmoil, a possible default, and the lousy economy too.

Read all of the rest of the piece.

The fact is American voters WILL blame the GOP for a further collapse in the economy and the polling is clear on the matter. Plus, there is no need for frightened credit markets or a possible default.

As Fred Thompson wrote:

We will never achieve entitlement or tax reform with a doctrinaire liberal in the White House. Any agreements to do so in “out years” would probably be unenforceable even if agreement were achieved. And we can only do so much while controlling one half of one branch of government. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House Republicans, you have laid some great groundwork to rectify both of those situations. Now it is the time to accept a well-won victory and move on.

Thompson is RIGHT – time to move on, vote for the Boehner Plan and if Obama vetoes it, then he broke it.