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Greg Sargent writes The Plum Line blog, a reported opinion blog with a liberal slant. Read More >>
A lot will be written about Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech today. But I wanted to flag this part in particular, where he flatly states that the brinkmanship around the debt ceiling may have damaged the recovery, and says efforts to use the debt ceiling as leverage down the road could create more serious problems in the future:
That’s some pretty scalding criticism of the debt ceiling standoff — he blames it for posing an ongoing risk to growth and warns that repeats in the future could create serious problems. Bernanke doesn’t name any names.
But in this context, it’s worth reiterating that some GOPers, including the leader of Senate Republicans, view this summer’s standoff as a good thing. McConnell actually sees it as a Republican innovation that they have set a precedent for using the debt ceiling as leverage again in the future. McConnell has said:
McConnell has also explicitly said he hopes this happens again:
I assume some on the right would argue that Democrats and the White House also used the threat of default as leverage for policy ends. But the simple fact is that at the outset of the battle, they repeatedly insisted that a “clean” debt ceiling hike was preferable for the good of the country. It’s clear they would have preferred that outcome and that they view the prospect of such standoffs in the future as a bad thing.
By contrast, the leader of Senate Republicans says that the use of the threat of default to leverage policy ends is a good thing that should be employed again in the future. Even if you agree with McConnell’s assessment — as I’m sure many conservatives do — it’s still a matter of plain fact that the Republican Fed chairman clearly thinks the possibility that this will happen again remains an active threat to the economy.
By Greg Sargent | 11:01 AM ET, 08/26/2011 .connect_widget .connect_widget_text .connect_widget_connected_text a {display:block;} #center {overflow:visible;} /*.override-width iframe {width:274px !important;}*/
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