Here are today's must read opinion and editorial columns.
CONGRESS IN THE LEAD BY DAVID BROOKSNEW YORK TIMES
This should be a humbling moment for the White House, and maybe a learning experience. There are other people who have been around Washington a long time. They know how to play this game. As a result of their efforts, we may see some debt reduction but nothing big and transformational... Obama won’t get his centrist election boost... The Old Guard wins. Obama’s televised campaign speech Monday night was behind the times. The action has moved to Capitol Hill.
THE REPUBLICAN WRECKAGE EDITORIALNEW YORK TIMES
House Republicans have lost sight of the country’s welfare. It’s hard to conclude anything else from their latest actions, including the House speaker’s dismissal of President Obama’s plea for compromise Monday night... We agreed strongly when Mr. Obama said Americans should be “offended” by this display and that they “may have voted for divided government but they didn’t vote for a dysfunctional government.” It’s hard not to conclude now that dysfunction is the Republicans’ goal — even if the cost is unthinkable.
A STEP TOWARD TRUST WITH CHINA BY MIKE MULLENNEW YORK TIMES
I’m not naïve. I understand the concerns of those who feel that any cooperation benefits China more than the United States. I just don’t agree. This relationship is too important to manage through blind suspicion and mistrust. We’ve tried that. It doesn’t work... We can let narrow interests and suspicion define our relationship, or work toward more transparency, more pragmatic expectations of each other, and more focus on our common challenges. That would be a great start toward strategic trust.
THE BEST OF A BAD CHOICE EDITORIALWASHINGTON POST
The current House proposal for lifting the debt ceiling is irresponsible. The Senate version is gimmicky. Between the two, we’d opt for gimmicks at this point. It is imperative, as President Obama said Monday night, to call a halt to this “dangerous game.” But even if one of these plans manages to limp past the finish line and avoid fiscal meltdown, no one — least of all those involved in negotiating an end to the debt-ceiling impasse — should feel proud of the outcome.
THE GOP'S MIGRAINE BY RICHARD COHENWASHINGTON POST
To fix what ails us will take time, ingenuity and political courage. At the moment, it is the latter that’s nowhere in sight. The right wing of the GOP is willing, if not able, to take the nation right into default, and a bevy of Republican leaders, most of them knowing better, are too cowed to object. They prattle on about leadership yet do nothing but follow.
A LEADERSHIP DEFAULT EDITORIALWALL STREET JOURNAL
The Obama Presidency has been unprecedented in many ways, and last night we saw another startling illustration: A President using a national TV address from the White House to call out his political opposition as unreasonable and radical... [Obama] demeaned the GOP for protecting, in his poll-tested language, "millionaires and billionaires," for favoring "corporate jet owners and oil companies" over seniors on Medicare, and "hedge fund managers" over "their secretaries." While he invoked Ronald Reagan, the Gipper would never have used such rhetoric about his opposition on an issue of national moment.
THE MORNING AFTER BY JOE SCARBOROUGHPOLITICO
The meeting was quickly adjourned with the understanding that Boehner would immediately call a vote to stop the hemorrhaging of world markets by extending the debt ceiling. In so doing, Boehner and his conservative caucus would be giving the president what he had been asking for all along. The $4 trillion deal that the speaker had once hoped for was now nothing more than an opportunity lost. His party could have had a historic deal to reduce the national debt. His caucus could have made a real difference. Instead, their intransigence crippled America’s economy and clinched the reelection of Barack Obama.