Much of the spring and summer of 2011 was dominated by the showdown between President Obama and Congressional Republicans over whether and how the nation’s debt ceiling would be raised, with some Republicans vowing to oppose any increase in the nation’s borrowing limit and others even extolling the virtues of a national default on our obligations.

While the current statutory debt limit should be high enough to avoid another dramatic conflict until after the presidential election, the issue of the debt ceiling has now come up in the most unlikely of places: the GOP presidential primary.

With his own candidacy on the ropes, Mitt Romney is now attempting to use Rick Santorum’s past votes in favor of raising the debt ceiling in the hopes of slowing down Santorum’s surging campaign.  On no fewer than eight occasions since February 6, the Romney campaign blasted out press releases attacking Santorum for his debt ceiling votes.  The attack was leveled directly by Romney himself, his spokeswoman Andrea Saul, and two top surrogates, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT).

Romney’s Super PAC, Restore Our Future, has also started carpet-bombing Michigan, Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi with ads leveling the same attack:

It’s worth noting that last June, Romney signed a pledge sponsored by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) that actually said the U.S. should not raise the debt ceiling and default on its obligations unless both houses of Congress passed a destructive balanced budget amendment and sent it to the states.  In the end, slightly less radical elements of the Republican party prevailed and the debt ceiling was raised upon pain of deep spending cuts (and with neither chamber having approved a constitutional balanced budget amendment).

Ironically, Romney’s own fiscal plan would necessitate large increases in the debt ceiling, in addition to those that will be necessary anyway in order to avoid defaulting on our current obligations. Despite its deep spending cuts (including to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security), his plan’s $6.6 trillion in tax cuts weighted toward the wealthy and corporations ensures that we’ll continue to run large deficits in perpetuity.

Until Republicans perfected the art of hostage-taking during the present Congress, raising the debt ceiling was a routine matter.  In fact, 130 Republicans currently in Congress voted to raise it at least one of the five times it was increased during the presidency of George W. Bush, including some who have endorsed Romney. Even the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol has questioned Romney’s “juvenile” debt ceiling attack on Santorum:

Santorum voted to raise the debt limit! (Along with every virtually other Republican when the GOP controlled the Senate-and does Romney think they shouldn’t have raised the debt limit?)

One is left to assume that Romney is either playing a cynical political game with this attack, or, based on his attacks on Santorum and the pledge he signed last year, take him at his word and conclude that he actually does oppose further increases in the debt ceiling barring the highly unlikely passage of a sure-to-be disastrous constitutional balanced budget amendment.

After months of partisan wrangling and GOP threats to let the U.S. default for the first time in history, Democrats and Republicans reached a budget deal in August to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. As Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) himself conceded, the deal was a lopsided victory for Republicans, consisting entirely of cuts with no revenue increases. “I got 98 percent of what I wanted. I’m pretty happy,” Boehner said afterward.

But apparently 98 percent is no longer good enough, and the Republican House leadership is gunning for the last 2 percent. Politico reports that the GOP is considering reneging on the compromise to force even deeper budget cuts:

In a surprising bit of hardball, House Republicans confirmed that they had been actively considering a plan to tamper with the August budget agreement by cutting even more from 2012 spending in order to put pressure on Senate Democrats to come to terms faster on domestic bills for the coming fiscal year.

Instead of the agreed-upon appropriations target of $1.043 trillion, a stopgap continuing resolution or CR this week would be calibrated at a lower $1.035 trillion level. The idea – promoted by Speaker John Boehner — was to effectively withhold about $8 billion for the first two months of the fiscal year, with the money becoming available only as Senate Democrats come to terms with the House on the dozen annual spending bills that cover government operations.

This GOP strategy is driven by the party’s desire to prevent further defense cuts and use the budget to advance its anti-regulatory agenda. Whatever the justification, their reckless decision to go back on their word risks yet another government shutdown.

Republicans’ reneging on the deal could still be averted: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the chief architect of the August deal, is said to be strongly opposed to tampering with the $1.043 trillion target. Final decisions by the House Appropriations Committee are expected Wednesday or Thursday, so Boehner and his cohorts will reveal by then whether they will honor their agreement with President Obama or once again hold the country hostage to get what they want.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), the co-chair of the joint supercommittee that will attempt to negotiate a debt deal this fall, told the Dallas Chamber of Commerce today that he will not take any policy options off the table before the committee begins negotiating. That includes new taxes, even though Hensarling personally opposes them, the Dallas Morning News reports:

“If I start to take something off the table, then maybe Senator [Patty] Murray takes something off the table and the talks fail before they even get started,” Hensarling said, referring to the Washington state senator who co-chairs the panel. [...]

“I have an open mind, but it is not an empty mind,” Hensarling said before addressing the Dallas Regional Chamber.”

In prior negotiations, the GOP held steadfast to its no taxes pledge, a stance that is not only opposed by a majority of Americans but also played a significant role in the downgrade of the nation’s credit rating earlier this month. Republican representatives who stonewalled every attempt to raise revenue, even as corporations and the wealthy pay low taxes and oil companies continue to benefit from huge government subsidies, have come under fire during the August recess as voters slam them for signing nonsensical tax pledges instead of listening to their constituents.

The fact that Hensarling isn’t immediately discarding the possibility of new revenues is progress, but the chance that he or the GOP have had a major change of heart on revenues is likely slim. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-MD) has urged his colleagues to ignore the implications of Standard & Poor’s downgrade report, falsely claiming that it did not smack Republicans for refusing any and all forms of revenue. More likely, Hensarling, who supports the GOP’s radical Balanced Budget Amendment and wants the supercommittee to revise the Affordable Care Act, is just positioning himself at the bargaining table before the supercommittee convenes for the first time.