Democrats Should Refuse GOP's Short-Term Debt Ceiling Deal

Why can't Democrats see that Republicans are playing politics with the debt ceiling?

Every time they open their mouths about raising the debt limit, they talk about Obama's reelection campaign.

"It's interesting that since 1972, Congress has raised the debt ceiling for six months or less 38 times. So we can surely extend it for five or six months -- have this committee of Congress come back and report on the way to continue to reduce our deficit, and in that way avert the disaster and make forward progress," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on CBS's "Face the Nation." "The problem, I think, is that the single most important thing to President Obama is extending this beyond his reelection campaign. He just doesn't want to have to deal with it again."

"I know the president is worried about the next election. But my god, shouldn't we be worried about the country?" added Boehner on "Fox News Sunday."

In my honest opinion, Republicans are the ones worried about next year's elections.  Many of them were elected on these grand promises to their conservative base but nothing has been accomplished.  While the GOP promised jobs, they were busy pushing their social agenda in Washington - mostly wasting their time crafting symbolic legislation that would never pass the Senate.

Republicans turned down an overly generous deal because it included revenue increases, such as closing tax loop holes, and have since floated their numerous cuts that are smaller that do not solve the long term problem.  Consider Sen. Kyl's comments on "Face the Nation"- he wants to solve this problem and then come back in a few months and talk about it some more and the reason why he wants to talk about it some more is because Republicans believe discussing the economy during an election year would be damaging to Obama's reelection.  Consider the latest plans being floated by Republicans.

Jennifer Bendery wrote the following for The Huffington Post:

The Nevada Democrat said talks broke down again on Sunday night as Republican leaders insisted on passing a short-term debt ceiling increase. During a Saturday briefing with House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced his plan to push for a more than $3 trillion deficit reduction package that would raise the debt ceiling in increments, by $900 billion at first and then by about $1.6 trillion next year. The White House and Democratic leaders have ruled out any type of short-term extension out of concerns that it would create uncertainty in financial markets and expose the already fragile economy to greater risks.

It's a trap!

Why else would the Republicans push a plan that calls for smaller increases now and one almost twice as large next year during an election year?  It would be a reminder of the economic problems that have dogged Obama's term and Republicans would be able to satisfy their tea party-base by claiming they are trying to make the big cuts as promised.

Democrats need to stand strong and realize this is one big game of political chicken or else they will end up the losers in the long run.