Let's try a debt-ceiling crisis again

With the U.S. economy teetering precariously on improving, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner is ready to take the bull by the horns and kiss him firmly on the lips, with a yet another showdown on raising the debt ceiling.

In an interview aired on Fox news, the speaker said that Americans, tired of Washington continuing to “kick the can down the road,” are waiting for Washington “to take action.” His bold call to action revolves around a plan to repeat the drama of last year’s debt-ceiling crises, knowing full well that in the end it will make no difference. But the high drama draws the spotlight in an election year.

See the speech on this link: http://slate.me/LO336p

Conservative Republicans have made Washington a long-running soap opera of contrived confrontations that serve no one but the elected officials who bring attention to themselves and their strength through standing up to the president. By constant attacks on him and his administration, they hope to create a groundswell of support for extreme positions designed only to play to their strengths. And, alas, it sells. By creating drama, distorting any word the administration utters and attacking the president cum strawman and they maintain the charade of fulfilling their mandate to cut taxes at any cost, even when they know that it is sheer and time-wasting grandstanding.

The best and most discouraging example of this school of thought is Indiana’s treasurer Richard Mourdock who defeated Richard Lugar, the third longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate. Mr. Mourdock ran on what was essentially an anti-cooperation platform. Sen. Lugar has been notorious for his disloyal efforts to seek bipartisan common ground, to find a win-win situation.

After winning the nomination, Mr. Mourdock proudly affirmed that that would not happen on his watch. “Let's do away with the Department of Education, Energy, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development," he said in an interview with NBC. In a move that appears on its surface to out-Herod Herod, he also proposes increasing the controversial budget that Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis) has proposed, seeing is $5.5 trilliion cut and raising him to $7.6 trillion.

Thank goodness they weren’t trying to outdo each other in circumcision cuts.

And that cooperation nonsense Sen. Lugar has embodied for so many years, Mr. Mourdock told ABC that "Bipartisanship has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. We don't need bipartisanship, we need application of principle."

See Mr. Mourdock's full comments here: http://bit.ly/LQTFkQ

He clarified in an interview on Fox and Friends: "…bipartisanship ought to consist of Democrats coming to the Republican point of view."

If I were Lee Hazelwood, I’d be changing the title of my anthem from “God bless” to ”God help the USA.”

Mourdock will face Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly in November. Please, God, let Rep. Donnelly prevail.

Economists estimate the United States will reach its debt ceiling, $16.4 trillion, early next year. As was the issue when this tragic-comedy played out last year, what happens if we reach it and the United States can no longer meet its obligation?

Well, that can’t happen, can it? So we know that the debt ceiling will be raised, but what can we do about lowering the national debt?

I am no economist. In fact, if I kept a check book, I would probably not be able to balance it, but, in my innocence I think:

1.Spend less.

Yup, we’re working on it and cutting enough fat that we are scraping bone in some places.

2.Raise taxes.

Or at least reduce the special tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest citizens.

What was that screeching?

Nope, nope, nope. Republicans will not budge on this one. Cut those Democrat social programs that help the poor and let Darwin sort it out, but we will not budge on raising taxes –or reducing special benefits—for the people who might not like it but would not feel the pinch from paying more taxes.

Might that mean that they donate less to charity or invest less in creating jobs? Well, I submit, to Tea Party logic, those are acceptable sacrifices. The poor and unemployed have only themselves to blame. And, by the way, always referring to the rich as “job-creators” isn’t fooling anybody but willing dupes. The two simply are not synonymous, no matter how often they are used that way to convince us. Republicans are holding Congress and progress hostage and brainwashing people to believe that raising taxes is ugly and harmful.

And speaking of Jobs, the more I know about Tea Party Republicans, the more I identify with his book.