A simple strategy to beat the GOP

It was a little depressing to watch the White House and the Democrats blow a winning hand and allow the GOP take the country hostage in order to win insane and counterproductive budget cuts. And this was just a tiny skirmish. They should listen to Matt's excellent plan to avoid another bloodbath over the debt ceiling.

It’s a two pronged strategy. The first one is a credible, repeated commitment not to surrender anything in exchange for getting congress to agree to the debt ceiling being increased. After all, why should anything be given up. Everyone knows that increasing the debt ceiling is the right thing to do. If the government were operating under uniform Republican control, the GOP would be increasing the debt ceiling. There’s nothing to bargain over. If some members of congress genuinely think that no increase in the debt ceiling is a superior options to raising it, then they’re entitled to be wrong. But there’s no reason that Obama should be trading votes with guys like John Boehner who know perfectly well that an increase is in order. This frames the issue correctly as one of whether or not Republicans who think an increase is warranted will nonetheless refuse to allow one in order to extract unrelated concessions.

It's all about framing the debate. The Dems found their message discipline on defending Planned Parenthood. There's no good reason they couldn't translate that to calling Boehner's bluff on the next hand. That is if they really want to win this game.