Sen. John Cornyn's Outrageous Op-Ed on the Debt Ceiling

By Matthew Yglesias | Posted Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, at 10:09 AM ET

It's no surprise that congressional Republicans want to use the looming expiration of federal borrowing authority to force spending cuts, but it's worth savoring this moment's op-ed from Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and at least pretending to be surprised by a blatant effort to pull the wool over people's eyes. After an Orwellian accusation that President Obama prefers to govern via brinksmanship, Cornyn reaches the conclusion that "it may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country, rather than plod along the path of Greece, Italy and Spain."

What he's missing here is that the path he's advocating is much worse than anything that's happened in Italy or Spain. He proposing that the federal government simply default on payment it's obligated to make.