Archives
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Dyspepsia
Tea always did
upset my stomach.
DUMB IS DUMBERER. Why does Charles Krauthammer look so sour?
Because Republicans are on the verge of blowing their huge advantage against Barack Obama.
The confrontation about the debt limit was a good idea. It exposed the inflexibility of the president, who cannot bring himself to compromise his anti-capitalist ideology even when the fiscal viability of the nation is at stake.
The whole country has seen that he cannot propose his own plan, nor can his party, if the simple question is asked, "How can we reduce spending so that $40 dollars of every $100 we spend is borrowed, in perpetuity?"
But let's not forget that this has always been a game of "chicken." Who will blink first? Who will drive off into the ditch before the Mutually Assured Destruction of a head-on collision? The people are now well able to see that the Democrats have no intention of reducing spending under any circumstances. Point made.
And point made was always the best possible outcome in a political structure that gives Democrats control of both the senate and the White House as compared to Republican control of the House of Representatives. That's it. Game over. Time to raise the debt limit and attack, attack, attack the Democrats in the 2012 election.
Here's the irony that fills me with despair. The Tea Party freshmen in the house were elected as representatives in a representative democracy. Their job is to do the right thing, whether their constituents agree or not. Isn't that the ultimate definition of citizen politicians? You didn't elect us to follow your kneejerk reactions but to serve the nation. And we're perfectly content to be voted out of office if you don't finally approve of our votes.
Still waiting for the irony? Here it is. The Tea Party caucus which insists it's okay to let the U.S. go into a state of at least technical default are -- by this exact positioning -- proving that they are already pure politicians, determined to hang onto their seats regardless of national impacts of their votes. Their seeming principled opposition on this issue is actually proof that they've already sold out.
Point made, goddammit. The debt limit has been raised dozens of times over the years. Yes, there was value in objecting this time. But what's the mission? To regain control of the U.S. government, meaning the presidency and the senate.
So the senate has passed nothing. The president has proposed nothing. There hasn't even been a federal budget during the Obama administration. What more do you want? The only reason not to pass some kind of even relatively clean bill raising the debt limit is to protect individual asses in the House of Representatives.
I'm thoroughly pissed off. I'm done with all righties who insist there's no penalty to pay for the nation if the world thinks we can't pay our debts or can't forestall a downgrade of our credit rating, which wouldn't have been a possibility at all if we hadn't made such an enormous issue of it in the first place.
I'm old enough to be sick to death of the win-it-all or lose-it-all strategy. If the dollar ceases to be the curency of first resort in the world, we will all suffer. Interest rates will rise, inflation will increase, and all the little people the Tea Partiers claim they care for will be thrust into a world of diminished purchasing power and escalating penury. Why? To prove a point? To take an axe to a situation that begs for actual intelligence rather than a mindless inflexibility that reminds me of nothing so much as Obama's obsession with corporate jets?
Frankly, I'm done with most of the Republican field. This isn't what I signed up for.
My candidate for the Republican presidential nomination right now? Evan Bayh.
Yeah. A Democrat Why? Obama must be defeated. He's destroying the United States of America. But so are all the suddenly heedless libertarians who think they just might possibly win the 2012 election by pissing in everybody's bathwater in the name of ideological purity.
Oh. Okay. Here's the beginning of what Charles Krauthammer has to say:
“I respect what they want to do; I
share what they want to do: shrink the government,” he said. But at a
time when the country is going into debt and destroying everything in
its path, Krauthammer said that Conservatives need to understand the
only way to stop the damage, according to our Constitutional system, is
to control the White House and the Congress.
To do that, the GOP needs to win the presidential election in 2012. He and O’Reilly both agreed on the belief that Bachmann and other Tea Party members who hold such a black-and-white stance and insist on not passing the Boehner bill – or any bill increasing the debt ceiling – could cost them that possibility. Krauthammer said the Tea Party is fighting the wrong battle at the wrong time, and no matter what, their position won’t be won from “pointing a gun” from half of Congress.
“You cannot govern from one branch. All the Conservatives control now is half a branch … and under our system, you’ve got to have it all.” he said.
To do that, the GOP needs to win the presidential election in 2012. He and O’Reilly both agreed on the belief that Bachmann and other Tea Party members who hold such a black-and-white stance and insist on not passing the Boehner bill – or any bill increasing the debt ceiling – could cost them that possibility. Krauthammer said the Tea Party is fighting the wrong battle at the wrong time, and no matter what, their position won’t be won from “pointing a gun” from half of Congress.
“You cannot govern from one branch. All the Conservatives control now is half a branch … and under our system, you’ve got to have it all.” he said.
He's kinder than I am. Because he has a stomach ache. I don't. I have full on nausea.
(Sorry about your 36-hour jibe yet, Pete? You should be.)
