Don't do it. That is the usual advice from "serious" people when it comes to negotiating with terrorists. Sure it's tough not to, and see innocent people get hurt. But if you do it once then everyone becomes more vulnerable the next time around as the terrorists are emboldened to continue their extortion.
This is what has crossed my mind as I watch the unfolding story surrounding a continuing resolution on the budget to keep the government up and running after 10/1. Then there is the issue of the United States paying its bills and not defaulting, which is estimated to occur about 10/17 if the debt ceiling is not raised.
The Republicans in the House are willing to do both, as long as the Democrats in both the Senate and the White House accede to their demands. Defund or delay the President's signature health care reform law, roll back Wall Street reforms, remove the authority of the EPA to regulate carbon emissions, approve the Keystone XL pipeline; these are a smattering of the ransom to be exacted for even a short-term period of keeping the government up and running and paying its bills.
And the GOP is not even hiding the agenda. Paul Ryan, their boy wonder, admitted that the Republicans have to resort to these tactics because they lost the election and there is not another in sight, at least not soon enough for their tastes. So they need to use this leverage to impose their agenda and policies which were rejected by the voters in the 2012 election. I mean every Republican running in 2012 promised to get rid of "Obamacare". The other pieces they are going after are right out of Mitt Romney's economic policy proposals.
They lost. Romney by about 5 million votes. The Democrats increased their majority in the Senate even though the numbers going into the 2012 election favored Republican gains. Even in House races Democratic candidates outpolled Republican candidates. The GOP maintained their majority only due to the severe gerrymandering that occurred in many states. In fact this is one of the few times in American history that the party that received a clear majority of votes for the House races did not end up winning the majority of the seats.
So basically what we have is this: the Republican agenda was rejected by the voters at the polls; there is no election on the horizon that will allow the Republicans to control both houses of Congress and the White House; therefore the Republicans have to threaten to bring the government and the American economy to its knees in order to try to coerce the Democrats to capitulating to the GOP demands and agenda.
What's really remarkable is not only that this is seen as an acceptable strategy, that the Republicans are so openly blatant about what they're doing, but that they do not pay a greater price for doing it. The traditional media again is falling flat on its face, providing no historical context about just how brazen and unprecedented these Republican moves really are. That would interfere with the pundit class' meme of always finding balance, even if it's false. Both sides do it is their mantra.
Not only is the Republican tactic an assault on democratic government (with a small "d" mind you), but the total lack of reporting by the media as to how outrageous this really is, also undermines democracy and our Constitutional system of government.
Good going guys and gals.
This is what has crossed my mind as I watch the unfolding story surrounding a continuing resolution on the budget to keep the government up and running after 10/1. Then there is the issue of the United States paying its bills and not defaulting, which is estimated to occur about 10/17 if the debt ceiling is not raised.
The Republicans in the House are willing to do both, as long as the Democrats in both the Senate and the White House accede to their demands. Defund or delay the President's signature health care reform law, roll back Wall Street reforms, remove the authority of the EPA to regulate carbon emissions, approve the Keystone XL pipeline; these are a smattering of the ransom to be exacted for even a short-term period of keeping the government up and running and paying its bills.
And the GOP is not even hiding the agenda. Paul Ryan, their boy wonder, admitted that the Republicans have to resort to these tactics because they lost the election and there is not another in sight, at least not soon enough for their tastes. So they need to use this leverage to impose their agenda and policies which were rejected by the voters in the 2012 election. I mean every Republican running in 2012 promised to get rid of "Obamacare". The other pieces they are going after are right out of Mitt Romney's economic policy proposals.
They lost. Romney by about 5 million votes. The Democrats increased their majority in the Senate even though the numbers going into the 2012 election favored Republican gains. Even in House races Democratic candidates outpolled Republican candidates. The GOP maintained their majority only due to the severe gerrymandering that occurred in many states. In fact this is one of the few times in American history that the party that received a clear majority of votes for the House races did not end up winning the majority of the seats.
So basically what we have is this: the Republican agenda was rejected by the voters at the polls; there is no election on the horizon that will allow the Republicans to control both houses of Congress and the White House; therefore the Republicans have to threaten to bring the government and the American economy to its knees in order to try to coerce the Democrats to capitulating to the GOP demands and agenda.
What's really remarkable is not only that this is seen as an acceptable strategy, that the Republicans are so openly blatant about what they're doing, but that they do not pay a greater price for doing it. The traditional media again is falling flat on its face, providing no historical context about just how brazen and unprecedented these Republican moves really are. That would interfere with the pundit class' meme of always finding balance, even if it's false. Both sides do it is their mantra.
Not only is the Republican tactic an assault on democratic government (with a small "d" mind you), but the total lack of reporting by the media as to how outrageous this really is, also undermines democracy and our Constitutional system of government.
Good going guys and gals.
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