House GOP Preps Debt Ceiling Playbook

“With an anxious eye toward the coming debt-ceiling negotiations, House Republicans are drafting what members call a ‘menu’ of mandatory spending cuts to offer the White House in exchange for raising the country’s borrowing limit,” National Journal reports.

“This menu is more a matrix of politically fraught options for the Obama administration to consider: Go small on cuts and get a short extension of the debt ceiling. Go big – by agreeing to privatize Social Security, for example – and get a deal that will raise the ceiling for the rest of Obama’s term.”

“It’s a strategy meant to show the GOP is ready to deal. But even conservatives admit that this gambit might do little to help them avoid blame should the negotiations reach a crisis stage.”