House Republicans Are Playing Politics With Our Future

In a little over 3 weeks The United States of America will for the first time in its 235 year history default on its national debt. The economic consequences of which will not only devastate the U.S., but the world. As the economy continues to struggle, compounded this week by a third straight month of increases in unemployment, one wonders if our elected officials in Washington are capable of anything unless they are being held by their ankles over the Grand Canyon? This is the fast approaching scenario we are facing. Politician's continue to posture and pour on the rhetoric, while the standing of the worlds greatest power hangs in the balance, is nothing less than deplorable. Mind you this is not future spending, (as I think many people in this country have been led to believe), this is money we have already spent. So for example, if you buy a car and then suddenly stop paying on that car, you go into default, and your credit gets wrecked. This is the fate we face on a global stage.

President Obama has (in my view) tried to diligently address this issue, and in a rare show of backbone, tried to define the urgency of this problem. All the while the Party of "No" has once again stepped up to stonewall his efforts at every turn. Vice President Biden engaged in debt talks with party leaders, and the Republicans walked out. President Obama has put everything on the table, and Republicans will not. The very future of our place in the world is in the balance, and Republicans don't care.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) has declared the President and the Democrats are creating a crisis in order to extract concessions from Republicans. First of all, Democrats don't need a crisis to try and extract concessions from Republicans, they need dynamite. Second, if the Senator is clueless as to the implications of his statement, the people of South Carolina need to find someone more worthy of not only their interests, but the nations. Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) said if the August 2nd deadline passes without a deal, we won't go into default we'll just pay the interest first. Then pick and choose of the 80 million checks we pay every month. So as we run out of money, who do we pay? Salaries and support for our troops? Social Security beneficiaries? People on Medicare and Medicaid? You can't pay them all, and who will decide? This is a prospect that hasn't been an issue for 235 years, so who will decide?. If you only pay the interest on your car, you will still go into default, and your credit will still get wrecked. So in light of the financial standing of the United States in the world, to even think about putting forth such an argument is irresponsible in the extreme. Under George W. Bush's Administration the debt limit was raised 7 times, where were all these fiscally responsible Republicans then? Now, because a Democrat is in the White House they would have the audacity to put us in the same category as Greece, Ireland, and Portugal?

It was suggested last week that the Republicans have drifted so far to the right they cannot govern effectively. The Republican leadership under Boehner, Cantor and McConnell have become paralyzed by their own major constituency, big business, and the rich. As taxes sit at record lows, and middle class incomes continue to decline, they continue to remain entrenched by refusing to raise revenues at all cost. At the risk of our Nation's standing, or more importantly, to their political futures. Republicans would see our country ruined, just so they can re-take the White House. The thinking being an economic collapse works in their favor, it's that simple. This is the ultimate insult to us as citizens of this great country, that politics is worth more than the general welfare. Now that may sound a little high minded, how we are governed, sadly, is never that simple. What I do know is this, Republicans are not just playing politics with their own narrow ambitions, they are playing with the very livelihood of the American people, and for that they should be deeply ashamed.