The political standoff over the U.S. debt ceiling continues. Though House Speaker Boehner is posing as a problem-solver by jawboning his own party to pass a plan today, the problem is that it's his plan, a Republican plan, which makes no move toward awakening the more addled members of his party to the reality of the moment. Further, it's only a House plan, which, by virtue of catering to the extremist wing of the Republican Party, stands no chance of passage in the Senate, so it seems unlikely to bring us any closer to a denouement of the current drama.
Some, including Senate majority leader McConnell, have suggested that the main thing separating the two sides from real compromise at this point is the question of extending the debt ceiling long enough to get us past the next elections. I don't doubt that's close to the truth. Republicans -- especially those who have so adamantly refused any compromise, but not only those -- have good reason to fear the effects their disinterest in the country's well-being will have on their electoral futures. They will strive desperately to give themselves a chance to unpaint themselves from the corner they're in before the next elections and therefore (again, please note, with no regard for the state of the nation or its economy) hope to preserve a chance to revisit the debate again.
Rational people may wonder how it's possible to ignore the effects a default would have on the U.S. economy. Some of the "tea-party" group claim to know that the effects of a default will not be as dire as predicted. A fellow named Judson, identfied as the founder of a shadow organization called the Tea Party Nation, attempts to defend tea party politicians' refusal to compromise, but nowhere in his screed will you find an iota of realism concerning politics as the art of the possible, nor a shred of understanding regarding the interdependence of national economies in the modern world.
True, we might conceivably work our way back into the good graces of international creditors over time, but in the meanwhile, how can anyone think the economy in its current state could stand the hit -- to interest rates, employment, business prospects, and many other aspects -- without driving us further into recession?
The anti-tax gang stems largely from rural jurisdictions; they seem to live in a nineteenth-century bubble in which the health of the American economy is dependent only on what we do ourselves. The bubble must soon burst but in the meantime, it's hard to care about something you think really doesn't matter, so their ignorance shelters them from the consequences of their dogma, and their weird obeisance to Grover Norquist, who's never been elected to anything.
The real answer to our current political stalemate is for sensible policymakers on both sides of the aisle to jettison their extreme wings and come to an agreement unburdened by the wackos of either persuasion. If there aren't some in Congress who can make this happen, we can only hope voters will do it for them in the next election.
Comments