Whose Default Is It?

President Obama couldn't take it anymore. He tried to negotiate in good faith with the Republicans and get a deal over lowering the deficit and raising the debt ceiling with House Speaker John Boehner, and now the Speaker has walked out. Apparently Eric Cantor told him to. Obama - who has never had any respect from Republicans since he took office - has every right to be angry. He spoke yesterday evening in his press conference with forcefulness, conviction and candor as he admitted to giving House Republicans almost anything they wanted but he still couldn't get them to make any concessions regarding tax increases on wealthier Americans. He said he has no idea what the Republicans could possibly say yes to. but then, the Republicans aren't called the Party of No for nothing.

That's a triple negative, but so are the Republicans.

Anyway, Republicans will blame the president for the not avoiding a debt default by not giving in enough on cuts and taxes. Boehner is already insisting that they had an $800 billion revenue deal that the President has walked away from. Obama has already blamed the Republicans for their inflexibility on taxation. There's plenty of blame to go around. But no one is going to get an A for effort to avoid default if there is a default, and no one will get any credit (no pun intended) if and when the debt ceiling is finally raised. Americans are just sick of everybody in Washington now. :-(