In an effort to show that they are not being inflexible in debt ceiling negotiations, Republicans are trying to insist that they have made concessions in the negotiation.
That concession: willingness to raise the debt limit.
According to Eric Cantor, “A vote to increase the debt limit in this country is an existential question for a fiscal conservative. These votes aren’t easy. …What I don’t think that the White House understands is how difficult it is for fiscal conservatives to say they’re going to vote for a debt ceiling increase.””
Well, perhaps the White House doesn’t understand how difficult it is because Republicans have voted to raise the debt ceiling repeatedly in the past.
During the Bush Administration, the debt ceiling was raised five times, by nearly $4 trillion. Every time, Cantor voted “Yea,” as did John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.
That’s 15 votes to raise the debt ceiling from the GOP leadership alone!
Seriously, this kind of nonsense is just insulting to the journalists who are expected to treat statements like this professionally and report them, and to the voters, who presumably are expected to believe it.
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