Republican Opposition to Paying the Country's Debt: Are Speaker Boehner and His Fellow Republicans Prepared to 'Shoot the Hostage' (That's You and Me By the Way, We're Hostages)

Questions of morality, patriotism, and sanity aside, the Wall Street Journal's advice to the House GOP amounts to sound strategy: to get your way, behave like a man with nothing to loose.

"We'll support efforts to cut spending and reform entitlements, but the political result will be far worse if Republicans start this fight only to cave in the end. You can't take a hostage you aren't prepared to shoot. Do the two GOP leaders have a better strategy today than they did in 2011, and do they have the backbench support to execute it?"

NOW with Alex Wagner   |  Aired on January 04, 2013

Boehner triumphs over Tea Party disapproval, regains speakership

Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s Megan McArdle, Janell Ross of The Huffington Post, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, and Ben Smith from Buzzfeed join Alex Wagner to talk about John Boehner’s continued hold on his position of Speaker of the House, despite efforts of select Republicans who protested his leadership

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