Last year, for the first time in our history, literally every Republican on Capitol Hill held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage as part of an easily-avoidable debt-ceiling crisis. The GOP made a series of non-negotiable demands, and said they would crash the economy, on purpose, unless Democrats paid the ransom. It was a move without parallel in the American political tradition.
We're still coming to terms with just how much damage this crisis did to the country. At one level, we know the GOP-instigated fiasco undermined the integrity of the nation and our reputation around the world, but there's also ample evidence that the crisis undermined the economy, job market, and investor confidence.
Yesterday, we also learned that the crisis was expensive.
The fight last summer over whether to raise the debt ceiling increased the Treasury's borrowing costs by about $1.3 billion in fiscal year 2011, and the bill is expected to climb, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In a report released on Monday, the investigative arm of Congress found that the battle between Republicans and Democrats over the conditions to increase the debt limit to its current level of $16.4 trillion led to uncertainty in the debt markets and higher borrowing costs. It said that a full accounting would be available later. "Further," a summary of the report read, "according to Treasury officials, the increased focus on debt limit-related operations as such delays occurred required more time and Treasury resources, and diverted Treasury's staff away from other important cash and debt management responsibilities."
This doesn't include the costs associated with slower economic growth and lost jobs.
In case anyone's forgotten, between 1939 and 2011, Congress raised the debt limit 89 times. That's not a typo. The issue came up 89 times, and in 89 instances, Congress passed a clean bill. In fact, in two-thirds of these instances, there was a Republican president, and no one ever used the vote as leverage for a ransom.
But in 2011, everything changed, Republicans deliberately created this crisis, and it cost you, me, and every other American at least $1.3 billion.
And here's the kicker: the GOP intends to do it all again next year.
As we discussed in May, Republicans should have been scarred by this crisis for a generation, but that didn't happen. On the contrary, the GOP hostage takers freely admit they intend to re-create this identical crisis all over again, on purpose.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will threaten Tuesday that Congress will not raise the debt limit next year without spending cuts greater than the size of the debt ceiling increase.
According to excerpts of the remarks Boehner will deliver to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation fiscal summit on Tuesday afternoon, the Ohio lawmaker will "insist on my simple principle of cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase." [...]
He will also tell the audience: "We shouldn't dread the debt limit. We should welcome it. It's an action-forcing event in a town that has become infamous for inaction."
It's not hyperbolic to characterize this as madness. Boehner has, in no uncertain terms, said he and his party are prepared to deliberately hurt the country -- and he's labeled this hostage-taking strategy an "action-forcing event."
In a way, it's true that holding a gun to someone's head forces "action," but it's also true that such aggression tears at the fabric of the body politic.
We knew this would happen, of course. After the crisis was resolved last summer, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities President Robert Greenstein explained, "Those who have engaged in hostage-taking -- threatening the economy and the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury to get their way -- will conclude that their strategy worked. They will feel emboldened to pursue it again every time that we have to raise the debt limit in the future."
And that's exactly what has unfolded. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Fox News that the GOP-created crisis "set the template for the future." He vowed, "We'll be doing it all over" in 2013.
Everyone involved in creating this fiasco should, if decency mattered in politics, be hiding, praying that voters can't find them. The notion that the same people who did this to us would seek re-election -- and fully expect to win -- seems absurd.
And yet, here we are.
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"Republicans should have been scarred by this crisis for a generation, but that didn't happen."
I was sure in 2008 that America would reject Republicans for a generation. I thought that the GOP would have been indelibly marked by economic and foreign policy failure for decades, and would have to re-invent itself before they would have any political power again.
I was so incredibly wrong that it completely shocked me. I can't understand it at all. Even in the Rust Belt, Romney and Obama are practically neck and neck. They can get away with anything.
Didn't Rachel point out that the cigarette tax in California was 70/30 until big tobacco dumped 50 million into the state 2 months before the vote.
It failed 55/45 .
It is a Faux Faux world where propaganda works and works very well .
America is too stupid for Democracy when a portion of the population is so easily swayed and ripped away from common sense by propaganda.
Brawndo - It's got electrolytes.
Are we there yet? I think so
I have a friend who thinks the Repubs should win so they can take this country to the "edge of hell", and that would make America wake up.
But, I read the book "The Road" (it was too depressing to ever watch the film) and I think the right wingers could quickly take us down that path of ultimate destruction and not only our nation, but the world will never be the same.
So, as Sick And Effin Tired as I am;-) I'm willing to fight tooth and nail. In fact, lets organize the strippers in Tampa to hold them Dick's hostage.
The Republicans have been on a "disinformation" campaign since Goldwater lost in 1964 and we are seeing the full force of it now. Remember 1964 - the Civil Rights Act?
That is when Joseph Coors got together with some of his buddies and created the idea to start the Heritage Foundation in 1973 "to change the way people think" just like they do with ad campaigns. Through using a boatload of money funding marketing techniques, propaganda and "rewriting history", they have exceeded even what they thought they could do!
Joseph Coors, a fundamentalist - in name if not behavior, was always obsessed with thinking because he was rich, he was "special" and should be allowed to do anything HE wanted to do. He also funded the John Birch Society as did Fred Koch, the founder of Koch Industries. He also funded the "Free Congress" organization which published "The Integration of Theory and Practice" in 2001 which is interesting reading! See if you recognize it in action!
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/FreeCongressEssay.html
http://www.heritage.org/about/speeches/the-legacy-of-joseph-coors
http://www.corporations.org/coors/article.html
So now, sit down with your Coors, Blue Moon, or Keystone and have a great time watching the Olympics!!
The half-wit in the Oval Office leaves us no choice. Lesser of two evils.
You overestimate the amount of well informed Americans who don't go by what they hear from biased sources.
Nice links oncearepublican, I gave up Coors decades ago because of social and political activity.
I especially recommend the first one, explains much.
Change 25 seats in the House and the problem goes away.
A-fecking-men!
But the Bush tax cuts are a much more valuable hostage for the Dems. Maybe Boehner and McConnell want to reevaluate their strategy. They will be hard pressed to cry about Dems taking hostages. Dems need to go all the way with the tax cut issue. The wealthy are not going to be happy when they face the possibility of higher taxes and Dems won't play ball.
They're trying it, nonetheless.
I wonder why PBO does not go for broke and add at least 5 percentage points more on to the proposed tax rates above $250,000. Is that 44% instead of 39%?
I suppose the bluedog DINOs would not stand for it.
@JJFFMM
The Dems can put the Republicans in a trick box by holding the tax cuts hostage. Dems can drive a hard bargain and get more than income taxes cut; they can get tax increases on a number of things. That puts Republicans between Grover Norquist and their wealthy contributors.
"cuts and reforms greater than the debt limit increase" (Footnote 1)
Footnote 1 - But not out of the Defense budget because that spending stimulates the economy by creating jobs.
You are missing the point: Republicans did this based on PRINCIPLE. Damn the cost ~ especially since the taxpayers are footing the bill.
Maybe I'm just not following here, but I thought the Dems were going to threaten to let the Bush tax cuts expire unless the GOP allowed higher rates on the rich, and that that was a winning strategy.
It's not a threat when you're going to do it no matter what. Threats imply that there's a chance you'll moderate the threat in return for considerations. And it is a winning strategy.
The difference is simple: taxes go up on everyone - unpleasant, not good for the economy. The US defaults on its national sovereign debt - global economic armageddon (not an exaggeration). See how it's not the same, or is there a need to elaborate?
Either way the hostage takers have gotten what they want. Begging for the hostage takers not to take the USA off the cliff is to yield to the hostage takers demand, OR allowing them to take the USA off the cliff, also gives that what they want.
If you follow the money in the past few whiles, it is clear that the holders of the vast proportion of the money supply, do not need to have return on their investment so much as the delusion that cutting government expenditures will actually provide a higher return.
The King Midas of Gold has touched the hostage takers, and nothing will shed the illusion, like tragic consequences.
Awake from the dream and vote them out of office, with boot firmly in place.
Another example of words meaning something entirely different to Republicans than they do to regular, sane people.
Republicans threaten to destroy the credit rating of the United States, damage investor confidence, drive up interest rates and quite possibly unleash a chain reaction of economic consequences that could plunge the world into another depression? Nothing like terrorists taking hostages.
Democrats threaten to allow Bush and 2009 tax cuts to expire and then reenact the ones on the first 250K of income only because they Republicans wouldn't dare vote against it? Totally like terrorists taking hostages.
The fact that Mitch McConnell can talk about Democrats being willing to take the country over a fiscal cliff and not be reduced to a pile of greasy ashes by a lighting bolt from heaven continues to amaze me.
Obama should send a simple message to Boehner, McConnell, and Cantor: "The United States of America does not negotiate with terrorists."
In a single day, Pennsylvania admits that voter ID laws had nothing to do with voter fraud, and economists point out that Republican jobs bills aren't really about jobs.
Is Romney a complete warmonger? Romney talks so boldly on how he would send in the military that is already strained and wore out by continuous combat. We have how many people who have PTSD now and how many of these people have committed suicide from too much combat. Romney has got to be the worst compassionate person around and couldn’t even properly handle any serious world matters with the way he talks. Romney would cause a ridiculous conflict with Russia and for what, because he thinks he is some white horse in some nonsense Mormon book. What does Romney want to do cause a nuclear war with his nonsense talk? Romney hasn’t shown any real concerns about world issues and has never even sought to learn of world events and issues in his entire life. Listening to Romney was just another disgusting rhetoric to listen to and too clearly showed his lack of concern and caring about people a long with no ability to solve any real world issues the right way. All that is in Romney’s mind is kill, kill and more senseless killing and in the meantime create even more of a debt without paying for it. What did they do clone Bush and Chenney, but made the clone mix 10 times worse.
So? They're just those people.
I think we should impose a universal draft on the one kind of people that have yet to serve in a single war. No, not children! Unless you're the governor of Maine or a 3rd-world warlord (both believe in child labour you see.)
No, my idea is simple: Corporations are people, too; they should serve in the armed forces! They were exempt from the draft in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Time to pitch in with the up and coming Romney wars in Syria, Iran, and God-knows where else.
"Warmonger" suggests a level of knowledge of foreign affairs, however distorted by paranoia or disinformation or pure sociopathy, that Romney very evidently does not have. Instead, I think he's more of a know-nothing empty-headed militarist.
Not mentioned is the fine print: if Romney wins in November, then all threats are off. Full speed ahead on fiscal stimulus, never mind the deficit. After all, deficits don't matter.
Vote them out, pie their faces, act up, fight the stupid!
The republicans are going to do what they do best, win at all costs no matter what.
They will produce ads that lie about the president. Use millions of dollars to show these ads over and over. If some people see them often enough they will believe it. And these people don't watch msnbc or any station that tells the truth, they watch fox, and we know what they say. The republicans will hold the US hostage again and blame it on the Democrats. It will cost us more this time! We do need to vote as many of these radical republicans out of office as we can, before it is too late!!! The wealthy should not be able to buy the Goverment for their own gains.
From the "Integration of Theory and Practice, a document prepared by the Extreme Right in 2001:
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/FreeCongressEssay.html
Also from the same essay:
Also from the same document:
increase the debt limit to its current level of $16.4 trillion led to uncertainty in the debt markets
Come on....that sentence is funny. "Uncertainty in the debt markets...". I find it hilarious on two fronts:
1. Increasing our debt to an unpayable $ 16 TRILLION is a BIG uncertainty for our country's future Dont Ya Think?!?
2. "leading to uncertainty in the debt markets" .. like it won't eventually get raised again - it's just play money anyway.
What a joke we are financially.
"no yelling"...???
do you actually hear it louder in your head when capitol letters are used for emphasis?
that would make sense if this were high school.
it's good to know however, that something so childish as judging capitol letters as being too noisy when writing or reading a post is considered more important than ones opinion.
thanks for you time.