The Sky is Falling...Again

First it was global warming, then it was TARP, now it's the debt ceiling.

Unlike the first two scares, however, the latter seems to make some Republicans think that this time it is to their advantage, that it is a "leverage moment" for the GOP.  Poor English aside, what they mean is that they think they can use the looming need to raise the national debt ceiling, yet again, as leverage against the Democrats and the Administration in order to extract from them real spending cuts for the first time in forever.

Well they won't succeed if they keep saying out of the other side of their collective mouths that, "Yea, we know, the debt ceiling has to be raised."  Why in heaven's name would any Democrat agree to any spending cut whatever, or to any spending cut with which he disagrees, so long as he knows that, in the end, the Republicans will vote to raise the debt ceiling nevertheless?

First, a bluff won't work if you tell the other guy you're bluffing.  Second, this should not be a bluff.  If they are to be believed, and thereby win, the Republicans have to mean that they absolutely will not vote to raise the debt ceiling unless and until the Democrats agree to cut spending.  Period!