As long as I’ve got the blood all angried up with politics anyhow, let me say something about this debt-ceiling nonsense that’s been dragging on for weeks and weeks: enough of this bullshit! It’s time to stop all the pointless grandstanding and just raise the damn thing already. It’s a simple administrative procedure that’s been done dozens of times in the past, and there’s no reason why this occasion has to have everything riding on it. No reason, aside from the Republicans being their usual overbearing, obstructionist asshats, of course.
Don’t talk to me about the debt or our out-of-control spending either. The fact is, Republicans don’t give a shit about the debt unless there’s a Democrat in the White House. They just don’t. The debt ceiling was raised 18 times during Reagan’s term as president, and nobody said a word about it. Dick Cheney said, and I quote, “deficits don’t matter.” Yes, I know it’s grown much larger in the handful of years since the Dark Lord shot off his mouth, but I stand by my statement: nobody would be talking about this issue now if the president had a little R after his name when he appears on television.
It’s painfully obvious to me what this debt-ceiling fight is about. It’s about the same thing all the fights in Washington have been since at least the days of Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America: scoring political points. Finding a way to dominate, to set the agenda, to frame the argument, and ultimately, to assume and retain power. It is about the Republicans thinking that finally, after decades of trying, they’ve found a weapon they can use to bludgeon the New Deal to death, and to (hopefully) deny a president they’ve never accepted as legitimate a second term. Maybe even finding a way to impeach him, depending on what action he’s forced to take by their infuriating intransigence. In other words, Republicans are willing to destroy the country’s credit rating and very likely its economic recovery (such as it is) in order to score some points in their never-ending political game. They’re not frightened of imploding everything because they don’t believe the federal government has any right to exist anyway.
And then there’s the Democrats, proving yet again what a pack of craven pussies they are. They’ve basically handed the Republicans everything they wanted and haven’t fought for anything progressives want. Way to go, you cowardly slime. Not that the Republicans have accepted any of it. That’s largely why I think this whole conflict is nothing more than political: the Dems have rolled over for them and they still won’t play ball. Which is pretty much how things have been for the last three years.
Finally, there’s President Obama. Barack, my friend, I’ve stuck with you for three years even as you’ve wimped out on single-payer healthcare and stubbornly refused to put your foot down with the lunatics on the right, who would happily send you to Gitmo in the delusional belief that you’re a Muslim sleeper agent raised from birth to become a president just so you can bring down the country from the inside. But it’s finally reaching a point where you’re embarrassing me, man. Stop with the “Mr. Reasonable” bullshit already. The Republicans are not going to deal with you. They are not going to accept you and they are not ever going to like you. Just stop banging your head against that wall of bipartisanship, rally your own troops, and try being more of the flaming liberal the right claims you are. Tell them no, they’re not going to gut Medicare and Social Security, they’re going to grow the hell up and do the responsible, logical, decent thing that will go a long ways toward fixing everything: let the Bush tax cuts expire instead. But of course, you won’t do that, because you’re really not a flaming liberal, are you? By any sane measure of your actions, you’re actually a moderate Republican in the same mold as Dwight Eisenhower. Too bad you don’t have the prosperous times and sane Congress Eisenhower was blessed with.
This is a dangerous moment in history, I think… we could finally be seeing the moment Grover Norquist prophesied, when federal government is shrunk down small enough to strangle. Some people rejoice at the thought. Let’s hope they’ve been saving and investing wisely for their retirement. Because everybody does that, right? Right?
