Thiessen: Boehner took away Obama leverage for debt limit fight

Marc Thiessen, former Bush speech writer who also wrote Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and how Barack Obama is Inviting the Next Attack, said on Hannity tonight that by getting the government shutdown out of the way, Obama no longer has any leverage in the debt limit fight that is next up. He believes that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Republicans ‘to force changes on the Obama administration’:

The difference between the government shutdown fight and the debt limit fight is that Obama has no leverage in the debt limit fight. Obama’s weapon in this fight was he could shut the government down. He would use his veto to veto a temporary spending measure. He will not veto a temporary increase in the debt limit. So he has no weapon.

Thiessen believes this is their strategy. If he is by chance correct and Boehner can get major spending reductions in the trillions or maybe the Balanced Budget amendment like the one Senate Republicans are backing, then I think people might be willing to overlook the failed promise of the 2011 budget. But he needs to get something of serious magnitude in order for me to overlook that.

But because of the way this last budget battle went down, I’m keeping my hopes in check on this. Something tells me that this isn’t Boehner’s strategy.


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