It appears the debt ceiling fight is going to get nastier. And crazier. Senate Republicans actually are making noises about a balanced budget amendment. Funny they never talked about that when George W. Bush was president.
Paul Krugman says using the debt ceiling for political extortion is new in American politics, but Ezra Klein says it isn’t. Republicans tried it before, during the Clinton Administration. Their demands at the time included elimination of the Commerce Department.
So failure to reach a debt deal would have very bad consequences. But here’s the thing: Mr. Obama must be prepared to face those consequences if he wants his presidency to survive.
Bear in mind that G.O.P. leaders don’t actually care about the level of debt. Instead, they’re using the threat of a debt crisis to impose an ideological agenda. If you had any doubt about that, last week’s tantrum should have convinced you. Democrats engaged in debt negotiations argued that since we’re supposedly in dire fiscal straits, we should talk about limiting tax breaks for corporate jets and hedge-fund managers as well as slashing aid to the poor and unlucky. And Republicans, in response, walked out of the talks.
So what’s really going on is extortion pure and simple. As Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute puts it, the G.O.P. has, in effect, come around with baseball bats and declared, “Nice economy you have here. A real shame if something happened to it.â€
Sheila Bair, who is coming to the end of her five-year term as chair of the FDIC, testified to Congress this week that even coming close to default on the debt could be catastrophic. And yes, she’s a Bush appointee, but apparently not crazy.
Specifically, Ms. Bair, herself a Republican, said that if the markets get spooked – even if the debt ceiling is ultimately raised – the consequences could have long-lasting impact on interest rates, which would hurt consumers, businesses and even the national debt itself. If the government gets close enough to default, even if it doesn’t happen, “you’ve increased interest costs, you’ve increased Treasury’s borrowing costs and you’ve created a bigger deficit problem. So why even go there? Why even flirt with it? I just don’t understand it – it’s very harmful and will make the budget deficit worse.â€
Ms. Bair said that there’s obviously no “immediate fix†to the deficit issue, but lawmakers don’t seem to get that.
This is going to be a lot of hard work, a lot of hard decisions,†and involve some combination of entitlement reform and revenue increases, she said. “It just seems like all those things are so obvious [but] the political process doesn’t seem able to produce the tough decisions that really need to be made and execute on them.â€
It’s strange how I’ve always wondered how people can get so engrossed in watching television soap operas…and here I am devoting time to the biggest soap opera ever to come down the pike. I’m not going to be sitting here nail biting while this circus is being conducted…my hope is that the Repugs do collapse the economy..because life will go on, and whatever damage they manage to do will only be beneficial to me in my current situation. misery loves company and the more people there are in a hurting situation will only increase my chances that the government will get serious about ending the games and finding relief.
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There was a time when no matter what your party, Congress cared FIRST about the country. Guess those times are probably gone forever.
Over on the rightie blogs, I’m seeing a lot of cheering at the prospect that Obama won’t get what he wants (raising the debt ceiling), and that the subsequent economic collapse will thus be blamed on him.
You’d think these people might stop to consider for a moment that when the hoped-for collapse does come, they’ll be living under the same freeway overpass with all those “libtards” and “lefturds.” But no, they seem to think that the collapse just won’t affect them.
They repeatedly vote for the interests of the super-rich – partly because Rush Limbaugh tells them to – but also presumably because they believe that someday soon they too will be rich. I think they are going to be in for an unpleasant surprise.
They might take a moment to reflect on the old saying, “Watch what you wish for, it just might come true.”
Yes, “some people” believe bad things only happen to other people and that it happens because they are flawed or unworthy. But, the current mindset seems to go far beyond correlation bias. They really can’t see how the fate of others will affect them and of course, Obama and the liberals will be to blame for everything.
I have two neighbors that receive disability. One had a stroke many years ago, the other had a medical crisis only a few years back. Both avoided bankruptcy and poverty because of government programs begun by liberals. They are not particularly sociopathic people, but somehow, they never seem to contemplate how much more difficult their lives would have been without the “Great Society” or to have enough regard for other people facing catastrophe to want to extend the safety net to them.
If the Republicans carry on with this madness and markets shrink or collapse, things will get very nasty very quickly. Maybe I better dig up a DVD of “Mad Max” so I can get my mind right.
But, regardless of the consequences, we need to take a stand, because once the blackmail works, it will be standard operating procedure thereafter. It’s a cliche, and it may not even be true, but “it’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.”
Let’s take a look at this from the Conservatives eyes.
To them, this is the right time, the right place, and the right situation.
Due to changing demographics, the next few years may be their last chance to grab and hold power long enough to make drastic and fundamental changes in the way our government operates, and the safety net programs that Democrats created.
The Republicans have been screaming about the growing debt (that they created), uncertainty, and rising interest rates for a couple of years now.
Right now, they are holding the economy hostage, trying to get the DEMOCRATS to lower that debt at the cost of maintaining, or increasing unemployment, uncertainty, and that they will help them kill safety net programs. And that if the Dem’s do, they hope the people will hold Obama and the Democrats responsible – and that they will then punish the Democrats in 2012.
And they really don’t care if something drastic happens if they don’t increase the debt ceiling.
Why?
Because they’re willing to risk the repercusssions. The debt will still be there for them to scream about over the next year, there will be a lot more uncertainty, and due to that, interest rates, while rising, may actually well soar. Exactly what they’ve been screaming about, is what they’ll bring about.
They are banking that a complicit and compliant MSM will continue to help divert blame from them, to Obama and the Democrats. And that’s why yesterday’s salvo from Halperin was not an accident. He has provided the Republicans and their pals in the MSM with their talking point – that it is Obama being a “dick,” and not the Republicans.
Look, what do they have to lose? If this falls apart and people DO blame them – well, they were going to be a diminshing power anyway in a few years, unless they drastically changed their political philosophies.
Ah, but if they win this gamble, and they get the Presidency and both Houses, they can continue the Fascistic changes whose seed were planted 30 years ago, and nurtured during W’s reign.
They will change voting laws and requirements even more.
They will cut safety net programs to nothing.
Corporations will rule.
There will be no minimum wage.
No safety regulations.
No banking regulations.
Less education.
A greater acceptance of religion in government, and vice versa, to keep the people in line.
People of color, women, children, the old, the disabled, the poor, and the middle class will suffer mightilly, with no one to turn to.
America may well end up having a Fuedal, Dominist Chistian Fascist system.
And the changes in voting laws will prevent any changes.
They have much to gain, at what they feel is acceptable risk.
Obama and the Democrats have to stand firm, and, if the worst does happen, somehow find a way to get the MSM to focus on the real culprits, and not on them. No easy task.
This, the fight over raising the debt ceiling, is the defining moment in Obama’s Presidency.
I used to think the business community would force the Republicans to back down. I’m not so sure about that anymore. Maybe they, like the Republicans, see that there is a lot to gain, with some acceptable losses. They know that if the Republicans ever do pull this off, that they will be free to rape and pillage whenever and whenever they want.
Unless you are rich, the next few years will be bad, and getting worse, and worse, as far as the eye can see.
And the Hell on Earth that we fear, is the Conservative Heaven.
Damn them all to Hell!!!
It’s hard to keep from getting deeply depressed about how badly our government is broken. At a time when we really, really need thoughtful and intelligent decision-making to deal with things like the planetary climate changing, the unforeseen effects of the chemicals we’ve been using for decades (I’m lookin’ at you, endocrine disruptors), the historical shift of the world economy away from the US-dominated post-WWII model, and other generational challenges, we can’t even get them to put away their rivalries long enough to agree on a bookkeeping rule.
At a time when we really need to be inventing the New Way of doing things, they can’t even be trusted to keep the Old Way running smoothly until we do.
Why so down, biggerbox?
Look on the plus side.
If nothing and no one else, at least our marine life is happy.
What there is left of it.
With all of the anti-depressants we’re taking to ignore the stupidity, ignorance, and sheer lunacy around us, we are peeing buckets of happy juice down to anything that swims.
I expect the next whole fish I see at the supermarket to be grinning like Monica Crowley being shown Reagan’s old dick pic’s.
c u n d gulag — with respect, I object to anti-depressants being called “happy pills.” They don’t seem to have much mood-enhancing effect on people who are not actually depressed, and for those of us who really do have depressive mood disorder, they just help us be closer to “normal.” Happy we still have to work at.
I heard it this morning and it explains the current obscene spectacle and all that led up to it – Campaigning for office, both sides of the aisle, has completely replaced governing while in office. Seems to me that this really hits the nail on head, really ‘explains’ the ludicrous behavior of sitting politicians these days, not to mention how. for years, the complete disregard of governing has landed us in this godawful mess.
And I’m back on my soap box – beyond time to change our form of government. If your house is falling down the hill, endless trips to Home Depot for shims and jacks and spackle and paint…won’t stop your house from falling down the hill. Dealing with its foundation just might.
maha,
Sorry, it was part of the gag that led to the line about ‘grinning.’
And I know what you’re talking about.
I took them for about 3 years because of job stress. I decided to quit because I didn’t think they were doing anything for me. I was still pretty much as miserable as I was before. But it was because of my job and the state of the country.
I then weaned myself off of them slowly (they warn against going cold-turkey, for anyone reading this).
And you know, I felt no worse when I stopped doing them than I felt any better when I started taking them.
I think they’re right for some people. I just don’t think I was one of them.
So, I didn’t mean to ascribe to anti-depressants any properties they don’t have – it’s just that I had this image in my mind of a fish with a smiling mouthful of horse-teeth like Monica Crowley’s, and that was the only way to get there.
It does seem pretty grim. I can identify with a lot of the opinions and observations in the comments above. I think the people behind the scenes may have something pretty big in mind. As biggerbox said, the government is dysfunctional, and it’s that way because of the way Republicans have frustrated and obstructed every piece of legislation that might or might have been effective. Their behavior has been so consistent that it is easy to jump to the conclusion that they are purposefully disrupting the government. (I know it’s easy, because, I made the “jump” long ago.) I also agree with felicity. It’s all horse race ALL the time. Even NPR spends way too much time on the 2012 election. We got about two weeks break after the midterms and it was immediately back to the next election. If the media spent half as much time explaining policy or presenting reasoned discourse (if anyone can remember that) the American people wouldn’t be so confused and they might actually work toward restoring a functional government. The political jockeying for election has replaced governing and making policy. I don’t know about you , but our lousy representative, Patrick Mc Henry is always in full campaign mode. As the Dubster said, his job was to “catapult the propaganda” there really aren’t so many people interested in actually governing.
“What a revoltin’ development THIS is”– C. A. Riley
Well, I have to get in a load of hay for my animals. –Cundgulag, I kind of like horse teeth.
The television commercial in my head starts with Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry pointing his magnum at the subject saying ” Are you feeling lucky punk? Go ahead, make my day!”
Then it cuts to a scene from the French Revoultion, the blade drops, something falls into a basket, and the narrator says “those who cannot remember history are doomed to repeat it, George Santayana.”
It’s all fun until someone looses an eye, and the working class stands to loose everything. Our “leaders” need to realize this, but they are so absorbed in their own drama that they have forgotten the unwashed masses who may eventually, do more than not invite them back.
I have NEVER seen such a bunch of rude ass holes in my life as the Republican leadership. They will crash the economy to get what they want.
George Carlin was absolutely correct about this bunch, they are evil to the core.
If Ayn Rand and the Free Market Fetishists Were Right, We’d be Living in a Golden Age – Does This Look Like a Golden Age to You?
When we have no money left, and no means to earn it, even the corporations will fail. Maybe we are trying to save an illusion that should have been allowed to die long ago. Still. I too have nightmares of the killing fields. Hard to see a more hopeful outcome when witnessing this level of inhumanity by so-called leaders and god-fearing people.
Good link, moonbat.