Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican member of Congress since 2005 is a Reagan conservative not -- at least not obviously -- a warm sympathizer with the Tealiban faction. She's probably a good fever thermometer when it comes to the health of the fractured Republican majority in the House.
Her statements on NPR yesterday would seem to indicate that Republicans are backing down on the debt ceiling, if only minimally and very reluctantly. Interviewer Robert Siegel called it being "less than absolute."
She was interviewed on All Things Considered. Excerpt:
RODGERS: Well, let me be clear. No one wants a government shutdown and that is not what we are encouraging. We want to...
NPR: Aren't you threatening that, though?
RODGERS: We are saying that if the president won't get serious about cutting spending, over the course of these fiscal fights we may reach that point. But that is not what we're encouraging, and especially when it relates to the debt ceiling, we recognize that there are further ramifications. But I think it's important - it doesn't mean a default.
NPR: And if you saw some prospect for some serious spending negotiations, could you see dropping the objections to raising the debt ceiling?
RODGERS: We're serious about cutting spending and the need to get our fiscal house in order. We also recognize there needs to be a way forward, and so we're going to work to make that happen.
NPR: I hear you being less than absolute, less than saying this is an article of faith, you block the debt ceiling if you don't have something in hand by that time. Am I misreading what you're saying?
RODGERS: Well, you know, there's going to be some - we're working internally right now to put forward our strategy to figure out the way forward. And in the House, we're going to be putting forward a proposal for the debt ceiling, for the CR, and for sequestration. All of those details have not yet been decided. ...ATC/NPR
"Putting forward our strategy to figure out the way forward" would seem to be a muddled way of saying "trying to figure out how to get out of the hole we dug ourselves into."
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