The Debt Ceiling Part 1: A Nation Pokes Itself in the Eye

I really think that this financial crisis has really brought out that which is worst in Washington. I find it utterly ridiculous that we have come this close to defaulting on our debt as we drown in partisan squabbling and posturing. But we got what we paid for, did we not America? Did we not vote for this in the midterms?

In the past midterm we Americans voted in these Tea Party freshmen Representatives on the promise of smaller government, less taxes, and basically opposing Obama on everything. During the negotiations, the close-minded and compromise-adverse Tea Party caucus did a great job of making the crisis a thousand times more difficult to solve. I feel like John Boehner is a rational negotiator, but he was seemingly held hostage by these wackos on the far right. I do applaud the Tea Party for bringing our huge debt to light as a public and political issue. I sharply criticize the single-mindedness with which they pursued their own solution.

Boehner's plan seems to be pretty rational to me, although I don't know the exact details. His was essentially to cut future spending, raise the debt ceiling, create a committee to work on future debt reductions either through raised taxes or spending cuts, and require votes in both chambers on the balanced budget constitutional amendment. Remove the required vote on the constitutional amendment, and his proposal sounds quite reasonable to me and it's essentially what Obama's balanced approach wanted, albeit with tax increases as a possible committee recommendation rather then put into immediate effect as law. Which to me is totally reasonable. His proposal did not pass the House to which he is Speaker of, because the Tea Party Caucus didn't like it. They wanted a guaranteed passage of the balanced budget amendment and more cuts. That kind of refusal to compromise, i think, clearly demonstrates that the Tea Party isn't fit to hold power.

Reid's plan was something along the lines of even more cuts with no new taxes, saving revenue with the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not really sure why this didn't pass the Senate, buuuut I think we can rest assured that House republicans would have killed it there anyway.

And on a related note but different tack, I can't held but feel Bin Laden's hand in this. Bin Laden and his cohorts learned about fighting superpowers in the mountains of Afghanistan, fighting with the Mujahideen there in the 80's against the Soviet Union. Essentially what happened was that the Soviets found themselves in an area with an unfriendly populace, and an invasion that was quickly bogged down (thanks in part to American assistance to the Mujahideen). Public support for the war quickly dropped as their economy was drained, and so the Soviets retreated.

Sound familiar?

Our two wars combined with things like the Bush tax cuts, the Tea Party, etc. etc. to lead us to yet another economic crisis.

Part 2 will be out in a little bit.