If you aren’t disgusted by the gyrations of our government over the debt ceiling then you aren’t paying attention. A bunch of Tea Party and ultra conservative members of the house, are holding the rest of the United States Government hostage in order to get their way on a settlement of the deficit problem, which has almost nothing to do with raising the debt ceiling.
To repeat for the thousandth time, the debt ceiling has to do with money already spent. It has nothing to do with money we might spend in the future. So McConnell, Cantor and their gang of liars have absolutely no basis for tying one to the other. Oh no, I’m wrong, they do have a basis. It’s that they are a minority in the government but still want their own way.
In a democracy, this country is still a democracy isn’t it, the majority rules. The way to overcome that majority is to vote more of your people into office than the other guy. Then as a majority, you get your way. Right now the Democrats have a majority in the Senate and they have the President. The Republicans have a majority in the House. Two to one. That means the Democrats get their way, at least until the next election. But the Republicans can’t abide that. They want their own way now or they will crush the nation’s economy and maybe the world’s. Must be quite a power trip for these pathetic excuses for congressmen.
I watched one of them this weekend, a typical Tea Party candidate, freshman congressman Adam Kinzinger, ® IL, a male model, with a really significant war record. He qualifies as a hero but not a congressman. When questioned on any subject he goes into auto mode and makes a speech about what a great country this is. That’s fine if you are a member of his brain dead constituency who care about nothing but his appearance and heroism. The problem is that being a good looking hero is not a good reason for being in congress where intelligence and the ability to reason are supposed to be the real qualifications.
It would be naive of me to think that these qualifications were always considered in elections but I am enough of an optimist to hope that they are at least, considered in some. Obviously this is not true of this section of the mid-west which has also produced the likes of Mike Pence.
But I digress. The basic situation is simple. This immoral minority is holding the entire nation hostage by holding up a bill that has nothing to do with their actual aims, which are the lowering of taxes and the cutting of many programs aimed at the middle and poorer classes, so that they can faun before their rich masters on Wall Street.
Obama has tried many avenues to placate these clowns and none have worked. Maybe it’s time to call congress together and demand that they vote on the debt ceiling alone. No side deals, no cuts, no added taxes, nothing about reducing the debt or cutting entitlement programs or fixing the tax code; just the debt ceiling. Should we extend it until 2013, yes or no? Maybe even should we eliminate it entirely? That way every member of congress goes on record either for crashing the economy or for helping the country out of these hard times. This will settle once and for all, who are the patriots and who are the fanatics who think only of their own goals.
Then, once we are past this obstacle to the continued viability of our international credit rating we can deal with the real problems that confront us, a soaring deficit balanced against the need for a massive rebuilding of our infrastructure, the maintenance of certain social programs, a tax law that needs serous restructuring and massive additions to our education system, all in the search for a huge growth in employment that will ultimately be the greatest force for a balanced budget and a reduction of the deficit.
And on another front, once we have our serious deficit, education, infrastructure, healthcare, et al, problems under control we should consider the actions of those who voted against extending the debt ceiling. For all those Tea Party advocates and ultra right wing conservatives who consider the Constitution only slightly more holy than the Bible, Webster’s Dictionary defines a traitor as one who commits treason. The United States Constitution , Article III Section 3: declares that; “Treason against the United States shall consist only in waging war against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.”
If deliberately trying to destroy America’s credit rating and exposing the national economy to a second crash which all the experts claim will be far greater than the one we have just endured, isn’t giving aid & comfort to our enemies, what do you suppose qualifies?
We are currently holding a pathetic little man in prison, pending treason charges, for leaking computer files that have yet to be proven to have done this country any real damage, certainly not anything like what would happen if we defaulted on our debt. Where’s the balance here? This is a confused kid. The men and women who will be voting on increasing the debt ceiling are supposed to be responsible adults, charged with running our government. Even the threat of not raising the debt ceiling could be, and it seems already has been, damaging to our national stature. It has already given aid to our enemies. And what is the real reason these congressmen have for their actions? They will tell you it’s to help the country but there are many ways to negotiate down the national deficit without endangering our national credit rating.
Their reckless behavior is only understood if we accept it as the means to help their rich friends and sponsors, the greedy billionaires whose contributions keep them in office. If their actions are not aimed at the good of the country, they are counter to that good and that sure looks like treason to me.