August 09, 2011 01:44 AM UTC

With Markets In Chaos, GOP Suicidally Digs In

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• by: Colorado Pols

Talking Points Memo:

In a Monday memo to the House GOP caucus, [House Majority Leader Eric Cantor] candidly acknowledged that S&P faulted the party’s unyielding stance on tax revenues for the downgrade. But he encourages members not to erase this bright line.

“Over the next several months, there will be tremendous pressure on Congress to prove that S&P’s analysis of the inability of the political parties to bridge our differences is wrong,” Cantor wrote. ” In short, there will be pressure to compromise on tax increases. We will be told that there is no other way forward. I respectfully disagree…. I firmly believe we can find bipartisan agreement on savings from mandatory programs that can be agreed to without tax increases. I believe this is what we must demand from the Joint Committee as it begins its work.”

In other words, House Republicans should unite against a plan that isn’t dominated by Medicare cuts and contains no tax increases…

USA TODAY poll released today–wrong answer.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds signs that another “wave” election with the potential to dramatically change the capital’s political makeup may be building.

Only 24% of those surveyed say most members of Congress deserve re-election, the lowest standing since Gallup began asking the question in 1991. Fifty-six percent say their own representative deserves another term, similar to responses just before tumultuous elections in 1994, 2006 and 2010 that changed control of the House or Senate… [Pols emphasis]

If congressional elections were held today, Americans by 49%-45% say they would vote for the Democratic candidate over the Republican.

Today’s USA TODAY/Gallup poll doesn’t make President Barack Obama look all that great, either, but he is beating the “generic” Republican candidate for President–and enjoys a wider favorability spread over Republicans in Congress than ever before. Other polls conducted in the last few weeks have consistently shown that the debt-ceiling agreement is unpopular precisely because it does not include new revenues to offset cuts–and voters do understand that “balance” is what Obama wanted, and the artificial and political nature of the entire debt-ceiling fiasco. It’s unpopular because it’s the way that House Republicans wanted it.

The poll today indicates a trajectory toward disaster for Republicans similar to the one that beset Democrats prior to the 2010 elections: generally agreed to be related to the health care reform battle, and the intense campaign against Obama and health care reform by Republicans and the “Tea Party.” The trajectory is similar, but the numbers for John Boehner’s Congress look even worse than they did for Democrats before the 2010 elections. And you know why, right?

Because “Obamacare” didn’t wipe out trillions of dollars of market value. What is happening now, with the markets in freefall and real people being hurt, is not a game.