The two parties are not the same. They are not doing the same thing. The Democrats are not failing in bipartisanship. The Democrats are not bringing us to the brink of financial disaster.
We have today a Republican party that is insane. Certifiably so. It is a party willing to throw our country under a bus in order to make ideological points that are totally irrelevant because the debt ceiling crisis is a manufactured crisis by the Republican party.
There is no debt ceiling crisis. There is no budget crisis. We do not need, at this point in time, a balanced budget. Government spending is not out of control (excepting as it pertains to the Pentagon and our ongoing Middle Eastern wars). Social Security is not in crisis.
Furthermore, what financial problems we do have could be solved by simply 1) reversing George W. Bush's tax cuts for the rich, 2) hiking the minimum amount of income subject to FICA, 3) closing the numerous loopholes which allow corporate entities to avoid paying any income tax whatsoever.
The Democrats led by President Obama are willing to do all of the above. That is not equivalent to the Republicans who, like spoiled children, insist on special privileges for their rich friends; who demand the middle-class and the poor bear the brunt of our financial burden; who show clearly that their loyalty is neither to our Constitution nor to their constituents, but to the corporations who own them.
In the past, raising the debt ceiling has not been a partisan issue. Congress has routinely raised the debt ceiling over 70 times. Furthermore, reasonable and responsible people do not threaten the financial well-being of the entire country (and the world!) by withholding approval to raise the debt ceiling by holding the country hostage to their whims as directed by the lobbyists and by the crackpot teapot members who have hijacked the Republican Party.
Republicans, in spite of all their protestations, don't give a damn about our debt or our deficit or whether or not we raise the debt ceiling. It is all a pretense. They want to save tax cuts for the wealthy. They want to cut the social safety net in our country, a net that has been built by blood, sweat and tears over the years. The Republican Party has always fought social programs that benefit regular human beings. If the Republican Party had its way back in the 30s and 40s and 50s, we would have no Social Security, no Medicare, no Medicaid. Another obvious sign that the Republicans are not concerned with our debt or a balanced budget is their blanket approval for the Bush spending spree between 2000 and 2008. Bush came into office with a huge surplus which he promptly decimated by cutting taxes for his rich friends and his war-mongering. We have thrown over a trillion dollars down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan for no reason whatsoever. That's why we have a huge debt at the present time. It's a Republican problem caused by a Republican president and his Republican cohorts in Congress.
Now, that we have a Democratic president who is also "black," the deficit suddenly becomes a problem. And yes, I am calling much of the Republican opposition racist! Racism in the Republican Party has raised its ugly head over and over again over the past two and a half years!
Hypocritical is too nice a word to describe the Republican Party today. Insane is more correct. Dirty also fits. Unconscionable is right on target. Ignorant describes most Republicans.
But we don't hear any of this from our news media. Instead, we hear how bipartisanship has failed. We hear how the Republicans AND the Democrats can't work things out. We were told that weepy Boehner walked out twice on the president, but the sense was that he had no choice because the president was so intransigent.
The parties and their representatives are treated as if their discourse and demands are equivalent. Nothing could be further from the truth. For the Republicans, it's "my way or the highway"; it's "if I can't win, I'll take my marbles and go home."
We should let them do the latter. One cannot come to agreement with people who have already lost all their marbles!
3 comments:
I agree with this diatribe! I believe our actions or inactions will have an affect upon the economics of the entire world! It is not simply a political struggle between two political parties.
Raising the Debt limit has not been a problem before. Many of the same people that voted for it many times are suddenly against it. Some have changed their mind due to circumstances but the majority of the Republicans seemed to have changed theirs at the orders of some with an ax to grind.
The long delays have created problems for any with long term planning obligations. That includes business people; students, retirees, those individuals trying to plan purchases, vacations, or anyone not knowing what will happen to their jobs, their investments, their daily budgets, etc.
Whatever final decision is made today or tomorrow should have been made months ago, so the decision makers could have returned to concentrating on JOBS and the business of governing.
The government is not like our private jobs and must use debt on occasion, like wars, natural disasters, etc. We usually have been able to handle debt over the centuries. Obama inherited a huge debt, so he did not start with zero. His and Congress’s job was to handle that debt, which changed the dynamics of all pre election decisions and plans. Many of the huge deficits due to the wars were NOT on the books and were generally unknown to the electorate! The bills created over eight years are now due and payable! Most of our representative’s know this but some apparently do not, due to their not having been in government before the last election. Many signed promises before they were elected and had learned the actual situation. I guess they assumed it was like a spouse charging huge amounts on their credit card unbeknownst to the spouse handling the checkbook, but government is not the same as our personal credit cards.
Shame on all sides for not doing their job, while the world waits to see if we can handle our problems. OUR President has more on his desk than this stupid cat fight! He should be involved in much more than election politics as we all should for the next year at least.
I'm surprised you two old farts could actually stay awake long enough to actually (attempt) to follow the debt ceiling debate.
Although it is clear neither one of you are capable of understanding the scope and nature of the issue (due to the fact your faces are buried deep in the trough my tax dollars constantly refill) I do commend you on your attempt to write cogently, even such writing is the usual liberal\statist\revisionist crap and is, as a result, total non-sense.
Dear Ramrod -
I find it interesting that you call us names and claim we don't understand the issue and that your taxes pay our way, you fail to address any of the points made in my essay - not one! Plus, you don't know how to spell "nonsense." Which makes sense, 'cause when all the chips are counted, that pretty well describes your petty complaint!
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