In case you aren't noticing, the most insane inversion in U.S. political history is occurring. The "Party of Business," the Grand Old Party, the vehicle of the northeastern titans—to this day the civil embodiment of "good-for-business" Babbitry, the Republican Party, in control of the House of Representatives, is about to ensure a totally unnecessary default on U.S. government obligations. It's a radical party that has highjacked the government and its credit.
The government can borrow money cheaply right now. To say it should borrow less is a separate matter. This is about paying bills already incurred by act of Congress.
But the hard-right, "Tea Party" faction—oh, I hate to write that, what does it even mean?—refuses to understand this. It hears "debt limit" as a sound bite, not an inconvenient mechanism between branches of the government. Don't give Obama a blank check, they say. In other words, a blank check to write to the holders of bonds sold to cover Bush era corporate imperialism. Because that's where the debt was incurred.
For hard-right Republicans, more than ever bad government has become the goal. Only a false crisis will cause the masses to relent and surrender their hard-earned, payroll-tax earned Social Security and Medicare benefits.
The Republican Party is a radical party. It is about the force the nation to endure an economic shock for no reason outside pure politics—the politics of ignorance and blame, and disdain for taxpayers disguised as specious "anti-tax" rhetoric. The costs will be astounding. All credit is pegged to Treasury bonds. Therefore, if the market demands increased interest from the U.S. Treasury as it absolutely will in default, the costs will be spread to every kind of credit and the cost of everything. The government will cost more. Everyone will suffer. Because right-wingers elected to Congress know nothing but shallow right wing rhetoric and can't understand basic government finance and economics. The U.S. government is not your daddy's bar, Mr. Speaker.
Along with nihilism in government, the right is relentless and insidious in the culture—they've turned the budgetary term "entitlements" into a word cudgel, throwing its rotten connotation onto government insurance programs funded by payroll taxes.
Now they're going to steal those taxes by taking those hard-earned benefits from small-time taxpayers, and use the money to make up for the taxes top-bracket have not had to pay for almost a decade. It's an a simple fraud, but don't expect any mention of it in the corporate press.
D.C.
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