http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/hang_tough_gop_s6kZRQ8tRo5ZOpLIeI3DUJ

Hang tough, GOP
Last Updated: 12:50 AM, July 26, 2011
Posted: 11:56 PM, July 25, 2011
It's all the Republicans' fault.

That's what President Obama told the nation last night in his
prime-time ad dress on the debt-ceiling crisis.

Republicans' refusal to raise taxes, along with cuts in spending, is
what's holding up a deal.

"The only reason this balanced approach isn't on its way to becoming
law right now is because a significant number of Republicans in
Congress are insisting on a cuts-only approach" and won't "ask the
wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to contribute anything at
all."

To his credit, House Speaker John Boehner refused to cede that
patently partisan point.

"The president has often said we need a 'balanced' approach," Boehner
said in his rebuttal. (Last night, Obama used that term fully eight
times.)

But, as the speaker rightly noted, "balanced" in Washington means "we
spend more, you pay more." And tax hikes -- which is what the
president insisted on -- "will destroy jobs."

Which is why the GOP needs to hold firm.

Already, Republican fortitude has yielded a key concession: Democratic
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan, which the White House
accepts, no longer calls for tax hikes.

Now the most significant conflict is over whether to pass a hike in
the debt ceiling that will last through this year -- the GOP approach
-- or a larger one that would permit continued borrowing through the
2012 elections.

Obama last night said the short-term approach "doesn't solve the
problem." He's right -- but then, neither does his 18-month approach.
Indeed, the key difference is that the longer term allows Obama to get
through next year's elections without fixing anything.

Meanwhile, House Republicans have a plan to tie an initial $1 trillion
hike in the debt ceiling to spending cuts -- statutory caps on
discretionary spending that would save $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

A second step would be to form a joint congressional committee to trim
another $1.6 trillion to $1.8 trillion by November.

If it passes through Congress without amendment, the president would
be empowered to seek another $1.5 trillion debt-ceiling increase,
including reforms of entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

Reid's plan, in contrast, provides a single debt-ceiling hike and a
$2.7 trillion spending cut -- though much of that is questionable,
since it relies on savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Reid's plan, to be sure, is a significant step in the right direction
from what his party initially proposed. But -- unlike Boehner's plan
-- it leaves open the very real possibility of adding Obama's tax
hikes down the line.

Plus, it falls far short of the GOP's ambitious plan to cut spending
and address runaway entitlement programs.

It is, in fact, little more than the same "patchwork" approach that
Dems claim they oppose.

Bottom line: It is the GOP that's putting principle over politics, by
addressing the root causes of America's unsustainable debt -- runaway
spending.