Take a Bow, Mr. Speaker

October 17, 2013Danny Vinik 5 Comments

Speaker John Boehner

Last night, Congress passed the McConnell-Reid plan to reopen the government and avoid a default. It also includes an income verification requirement for Obamacare and sets up a bicameral committee that will attempt to come to a large budget deal by December 13th. In return for a 16 day government shutdown and debt ceiling brinksmanship, Republicans received a cosmetic change in Obamacare that does nothing substantial.

It’s easy to look at that and lament the wasted time and needless suffering that was caused by it. It’s easy to wish that John Boehner had decided on September 30th to break the Hastert Rule and pass a clean continuing resolution and clean debt ceiling increase. It’s easy to look for blame and settle on the speaker. But it’s wrong.

It’s wrong, because it ignores the internal political dynamics that exists in the Republican House conference and it holds Boehner to a standard that no politician should be held to. If Boehner had brought to the floor a clean CR and clean debt ceiling bill, he would’ve faced a revolt amongst his members. They would’ve lambasted him in the media and challenged his speakership. It would’ve been ugly.

But it wouldn’t end there. It would have created a deep fissure in the GOP. Anyone who voted for those bills would’ve faced a primary challenge. It would’ve pitted any conservative in favor of a quick retreat against those wanting to fight. The Tea Party would have gone to war against the establishment. It would eliminate any chance that the House could pass legislation until 2015. It would also put the Republican House majority in jeopardy. Imagine a year of Republican-on-Republican attacks, nasty primaries and voters choosing to stay home. This is what journalists are asking Boehner to do when they ask him to cut the Tea Party loose. They are asking him to tear his party in half.

For Boehner, this was never about defunding Obamacare or extracting policy concessions from the White House. He knew the first was never going to happen and the second was highly unlikely. The White House was looking to end debt-ceiling hostage taking and wasn’t going to negotiate. Boehner wasn’t going to let the U.S. default so he always knew he was going to surrender.

Instead, this was all about party unity. The longer Boehner postponed the day of surrender, the more he could keep his conference unified. The Tea Party can’t survive without the Republican Party and the Republican Party can’t survive without the Tea Party. Over time, the extreme tactics of the Tea Party may disappear as the political and policy consequences of their actions slowly build, but that take elections. It takes establishment candidates defeating Tea Party candidates in primaries. A Republican civil war reduces the power of both. It’s easy to see why liberals would love that outcome – it would give Democrats immense control of the legislative process. But it would be terrible for the Republican party.

This is political dynamic that John Boehner has to deal with. He must lead members that vary widely across the conservative political spectrum, who are overeager to make an impact and are willing to use extreme tactics to get what they want. He must deal with a newly invigorated grassroots base that attempts to undermine and replace him at every turn. And he faces all of this in a time when the speakership has fewer powers than ever before.

The past three weeks were his greatest challenge. He had to build up as much credibility with the Tea Party as he possibly could, knowing he would have no choice but to betray them in the end. That meant listening to them and letting them guide his actions. His strategy was to do whatever the Tea Party wanted. His moderate members were always going to support him and have his back when the debt ceiling vote came. The right-wingers were the ones he had to court.

After the deal last night, the results are in: His strategy was a huge success.

His members gave him a standing ovation during their conference meeting Wednesday – the same meeting where he announced that he was surrendering. One supporter of the #DefundObamacare movement said that Boehner’s speakership is “more secure than ever.” Rep. Raul Labrador, one of the most conservative members of the House, said he’s “really proud of Speaker Boehner.” Another hard-line conservative, Rep. Phil Gingrey, said yesterday “Speaker Boehner’s got more courage in his little finger than most of us do in our entire bodies.” These are the same members who would have challenged his speakership if he attempted to pass a clean CR and clean debt ceiling bill.

This is Boehner’s greatest accomplishment. He kept his party unified in the face of overwhelming odds. The fact that they split on the vote yesterday is meaningless. The Republican House stands as one, even if it doesn’t always vote that way. Anyone who thinks this was an easy feat for the speaker hasn’t been watching the internal dynamics of the Republican conference. John Boehner has the toughest job in politics and he’s performed it masterfully.

Take a bow, Mr. Speaker.

The End of Debt-Ceiling Hostage Taking

October 16, 2013Danny Vinik 9 Comments

Greg Sargent had a good post yesterday explaining why Democrats are so adamant that they will not give any concessions for raising the debt ceiling:

Democrats, by contrast, don’t believe this constitutes acceptable governing. They don’t believe budget negotiations should proceed under these conditions. They are not making an argument about what the House majority can legally or Constitutionally do; they are making an argument about what they believe the House majority should and shouldn’t do, about what does and doesn’t constitute good governing. They are making an argument about governing norms. The Dem argument is that this practice should be renounced by both sides. Dems believe making concessions under these conditions now will legitimize the GOP demand for negotiations to happen under them, making default later all but certain, because this sort of standoff will happen again and again, ultimately leading to miscalculation and disaster.

Bingo. The key here is that Republicans only have leverage to extract concessions out of Democrats if they really are OK with breaching the debt limit. There are some who are, but the House GOP leadership isn’t. That’s been abundantly clear for weeks now as Boehner has repeatedly commented that the U.S. cannot default on its debts. It’s even clearer if you look at how House Republicans have ramped down their demands.

After Boehner’s plan fell apart in the House yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped back in and quickly brokered a deal that would stave off a default. It funds the government until January 7 and raises the debt ceiling until February 15 while strengthening the income verification requirements in Obamacare. It does not include a delay of the reinsurance fee, of the medical device tax or a ban on the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures. It also sets up a bicameral conference committee with the goal of coming to a budget agreement by December 13. Make no mistake: this is a Republican surrender. The income verification condition is simply an enforcement of current law. The rest is a clean CR and clean debt ceiling hike, exactly what President Obama and Democrats have been calling for the past month.

Due to parliamentary rules, a single senator (cough Ted Cruz cough) could drag out the Senate bill so a vote doesn’t take place until Saturday or Sunday. If all senators agree by unanimous consent to forego debate on the bill, it can be voted on today and head to the House, but that requires the agreement of all senators. If the bill originates in the House and is passed, the Senate can take it up and vote on it soon after. Thus, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is pushing Boehner to bring it to the floor to speed up this entire process. No matter what though, it looks like the speaker will allow a vote on the bill, which will then pass with mostly Democratic support.

There is a more important point here: This is the end of debt-ceiling hostage taking.

It’s over. Boehner and Co. capitulated completely, because their entire strategy was a bluff. This deal proves that Republicans aren’t willing to breach the debt limit. If Boehner ever threatens to do so again in the future, no one should take it seriously. He no longer has the credibility to make those threats. The debt limit is not an extortion device. A minority party cannot use it to extract a policy concession from the majority. This is the new governing norm.

Being Honest with the Tea Party Doesn’t Work

October 15, 2013Danny Vinik 1 Comment

One of the main criticisms of House Republican leaders, particularly Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), the past two weeks is that they lied to the Tea Party about what they could actually accomplish during these fiscal fights. It’s not particularly surprising that Obama isn’t negotiating or that Republicans are being overwhelmingly blamed for the shutdown. The thinking goes that if only Boehner had informed his members at the beginning that they had no chance in these fiscal fights, then it would be easy to cut a deal right now. But why?

What makes anyone think that the Tea Party would be less intransigent if Boehner and Co. hadn’t overpromised at the beginning?

Here’s a counterfactual: On September 28, Boehner holds a meeting with all his members and tells them the truth. President Obama really isn’t going to budge. He’ll allow a government shutdown and may even allow a default if necessary, because he believes these fights are about more than Obamacare. He believes they are about not setting the precedent for the minority party to use the budget and debt ceiling as leverage to extract policy concessions from the majority. Boehner says he doesn’t agree, but that’s the president’s stance and he’s not going to budge. He also tells them that it’s highly likely that Americans will blame Republicans for any shutdown or default and it could potentially risk their House majority in the midterm elections. Boehner even tells them that a default would be catastrophic and they can’t allow it to happen.

How do the Tea Party members react to that? Do they listen, synthesize everything the speaker said and agree to fight another day? Not at all.

That’s because, as Business Insider’s Josh Barro put it, they are living on another planet. Polling doesn’t mean anything. Breaching the debt ceiling wouldn’t be that bad. President Obama caved in 2011 so he’s bound to this time too.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. But these conservative members don’t care. They are on a blind crusade against Obamacare and will do everything in their power to stop it. It doesn’t matter what Boehner tells them. His words affect their mood, not their perception of reality.

If Boehner says that the president will cave and they have a real shot at taking down Obamacare, they cheer and support the speaker. That’s exactly what they want to hear.

If he tells them the truth like I outlined above, they sit in silence and find ways to undermine him. They simply won’t believe what the speaker says.

Being honest with these conservative members doesn’t work, because they simply don’t believe it.

Some journalists think that Boehner raised their expectations over these fiscal fights and that the intense Tea Party opposition is a result of their expectations not being met. But the Tea Party expected to stop Obamacare, no matter what the speaker said. Boehner just convinced them that he believed that they could stop Obamacare. That may have stoked their enthusiasm, but it didn’t change their expectations or their willingness to do anything to stop the law.

From Boehner’s perspective, this lie kept his party unified for a little bit longer while he searched for any way out. The Tea Party was always going to be furious by whatever deal he cuts, because it won’t substantially undermine Obamacare. If he had told them that at the beginning, he would’ve immediately split his party in half and put himself in an even worse negotiating position. Lying to them kept his members united and gave him time to work out a deal. It didn’t stoke their anger or increase their opposition to the eventual deal. That was coming no matter what.