The GOP holds out for more on the debt standoff

By Harold Meyerson,
Washpost
Tuesday, July 26, 6:11 PM

To elucidate the mysteries of Washington — in particular, why House Republicans, having compelled the Democrats to craft a Republican-in-all-but-name plan to get a deal on raising the debt ceiling, still don’t want a deal — we turn to the Fable of the Scorpion and the Frog.

A scorpion meets a frog on the bank of a stream and asks the frog to carry him across on his back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion answers, “Because if I do, I’ll drown along with you.” So the frog, bowing to the logic of the scorpion’s answer, sets out across the stream with the scorpion on his back. About midstream, the scorpion stings the frog, who is paralyzed and starts to sink — as does the scorpion. “Why?” the dying frog asks. “Because it’s my nature,” the scorpion replies.

Refusing to reach a deal on raising the debt ceiling has cost Republicans in the court of public opinion. Virtually every poll shows that the public would blame them more than they would President Obama or congressional Democrats if the government does, in fact, default. While a default would doubtless wound Obama, as it very likely would hurt the U.S. and global economies, any rational calculation of self-interest would surely compel the GOP to come to terms. That’s why the financial markets, which base their calculations on the assumption that people — certainly, major groups — act in their own self-interest, have believed that a deal would eventually be struck.

But the frog assumed the scorpion would act in his own self-interest, too.

(More here.)