So Mitch McConnell is repeating what he said on Friday: Unless Democrats agree to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, Republicans will block any increase in the debt limit, forcing the United States into default.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Capitol Hill, Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican Conference, says "it's time to pick a fight" over top Republican priorities like banning family planning funding and repealing health care reform. If his party doesn't get its way, Pence says, they should refuse to fund anything at all, forcing the closure of the federal government.
These hardline positions appear to be the GOP's response to the unilateral concession from Democrats that they would be willing to move towards the GOP position on overall spending levels. Instead of moving towards Democrats and trying to reach a compromise, Republicans are simply moving the goalposts further to the right.
If past is prologue, you'd think this was all a prelude to yet more concessions from Democrats. And I wouldn't bet against that. But it also could be a move to paint the GOP into a corner: if Democrats hold their ground, the GOP will need to to either disappoint their base by giving up on its social policy agenda and abandoning its plans to repeal health care reform and slash Social Security, or it will need to accept the blame for shutting down the federal government and forcing America into default. I'm not betting on that scenario, but it's plausible.
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