GOP, Obama Battle for Advantage on Debt Ceiling

Who is in the catbird seat when it comes to dealing with the government debt ceiling? Republicans say that as the party of spending cuts, they are the ones, especially as polls show voters don’t want to see the debt limit raised. But the White House thinks it has the advantage, The Hill reports.

“The Republicans have a huge amount of leverage,” Chris Edwards, director of tax policy for the Cato Institute, tells the publication. “They know this is a huge opportunity.”

But star Republican strategist and Newsmax contributor Dick Morris said before the 2011 budget compromise was reached that if Republicans agreed to it, they’d lose the advantage.

“If Republicans in the House accede to Democratic and administration demands that they accept a lesser figure in budget cuts, they will throw away all their power and be revealed as toothless and impotent, though still noisy,” he wrote in The Hill before the agreement.