January 16, 2013
The NYT ran a piece telling readers that business leaders do not have the same influence with Republicans in Congress that they had in the past, noting in particular their differences on using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in budget negotiations. It is important to note that the fact that politicians are willing to say that they would be prepared to push the government to a default doesn’t mean that they actually would push the government to default.
It is relatively costless for a politician to publicly say that he/she feels so strongly about excessive spending that she would let the government default when the country is at least a month away from any deadline. Such appeals are popular with many voters. However this does not mean that these politicians would vote against raising the debt ceiling when the government actually faced default. The history has been that the Republican leadership has been able to get the necessary support on votes that were deemed important for business, such as the TARP. This article presents no reason to believe that situation has changed.
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