let s travel back in time to the great ceiling debt debacle of 2011. here is what president obama was demanding. at minimum we ve got to raise the debt ceiling. so, that s the bare minimum that has to be achieved. here is what john boehner and the republicans in the house were demanding. the house cannot pass a bill that raises taxes on job creators. the house could only pass a debt limit bill that includes spending cuts larger than the hike in the debt limit as well as real restraints on future spending. and here is what john boehner said when the final bill was si signed into law with the dreaded sequester. when you look at this final agreement that we came to with the white house, i got 98% of what i wanted. i m pretty happy. to his credit, that s how republicans lindsey graham remembers it as well. as john will say it with
moreover, we ve attached in one form or another, it gets complicated, but we ve attached conditions on increasing the debt limit ceiling, graham rudman, the bill in 1986, i think it was, 1996, we have a done it a bunch of times, a perfectly reasonable thing to do. put some reasonable reforms in to say, look, we ve got to pay our past bills, but this is the only chance we have of getting a bill for what we ve already spent and a sense of how we re going it curtail future spending, maybe this is a good moment to figure out a way to do that and obama president obama keeps saying we can have that discussion, have that discussion about cutting spending, but the thing is, jonah, we never have that discussion. it s strange, obama ran a campaign saying we need a balanced approach, a balanced approach can t ask seniors to pay more without asking the rich to pay more so we have to raise taxes. so we raise taxes, we got pretty much exactly what obama asked for with a big tax hike and obama s
government shutdown. raising the debt ceiling isn t about future spending, it s about past spending approved by congress. default would cause an immediate financial collapse with long-term national and global consequences. it s estimated the 2011 standoff increased the nation s borrowing cost by $1.3 billion in that year alone. it amazing me that the people using the debt ceiling as leverage to reduce the deficit don t seem to mind playing another billion dollar game of chicken. president obama said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling. it looks like some republicans might already be backing off this fight overall. but in the wall street journal in an interview, john boehner, house speaker, called the debt bill one point of leverage. but also acknowledged it s not the ultimate leverage. so where are they going with all of this? i m going to john nichols tonight, washington correspondent for the nation magazine. john, good to have you with us. it s a game of chicken they a
ceiling-triggered government shutdown, basically with no regard for the potentially devastating consequences. with the debt ceiling deadline likely coming in mid- to late february, their misinformation campaign continues. i think we have to be prepared to go so far as to shut the government down if we don t get some serious policies to stop the out of control spending to tackle the debt and to get economic growth going again. i was here during the government shutdown in 1995. it was a divided government. we had the democrat president of the united states and a republican congress. i believe that government shutdown actually gave us the impetus as we went forward to push to work some real serious compromises. so you think that s a good idea? yes, i do. you really do? i do. i think it s about time. fearmongering. let s be absolutely clear on this. not raising the debt court of appealing is not the same as a partial government shutdown. raising the debt ceiling isn t about f
this. not raising the debt ceiling is not the same as a partial government shutdown. raising the debt ceiling isn t about future spending, it s about past spending approved by congress. default would cause an immediate financial collapse with long-term national and global consequences. it s estimated the 2011 standoff increased the nation s borrowing cost by $1.3 billion in that year alone. it amazing me that the people using the debt ceiling as leverage to reduce the deficit don t seem to mind playing another billion dollar game of chicken. president obama said he would not negotiate over the debt ceiling. it looks like some republicans might already be backing off this fight overall. but in the wall street journal in an interview, john boehner, house speaker, called the debt bill one point of leverage. but also acknowledged it s not the ultimate leverage. so where are they going with all of this? i m going to john nichols tonight, washington