Rutland Herald - "Governing by blackmail"

[TomCADem]

Here is a nice commentary that puts Republicans threats to breach the debt limit in perspective.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20131007/OPINION04/710079958

Some Americans think that this crisis reflects typical partisan squabbling. No. Democrats and Republicans have always disagreed, sometimes ferociously, about what economic policy is best, but, in the past, it was not normal for either to sabotage the economy as a negotiating tactic.

In a household, husbands and wives disagree passionately about high-stakes issues like how to raise children. But normal people do not announce that, if their spouse does not give in, they will break all the windows in the house.

Hard-line House Republicans seem to think that their ability to inflict pain on 800,000 federal workers by furloughing them without pay gives them bargaining chips. The hard-liners apparently believe that their negotiating position is strengthened when they demonstrate that they can wreck American governance.

The stakes rise as we approach the debt limit and the risk of default — which the Treasury Department notes could have an impact like that of the 2008 financial crisis and “has the potential to be catastrophic.” Astonishingly, Republican hard-liners see that potential catastrophe as a source of bargaining power in a game of extortion: We don’t want anything to happen to this fine American economy as we approach the debt limit, so you’d better meet our demands.

[gopiscrap]

1. No kidding

[blkmusclmachine]

2. America, Meet Bathtub.

And yet, the DC DEMS still treat the Republicans as equals bargaining in good faith...

[Laelth]

3. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth