(Ted Rall’s website)
Tom Junod posted this in Esquire‘s Political Blog two weeks ago, but I don’t think I’ve seen a better analogy for the GOPers’ intransigence since then:
Ah, but that’s vision for you: Some men see the economic peril that is and say “Why?”; others dream of the economic peril that never was and say “Why not?” Indeed, after spending an entire day talking to Democrats and Republicans about the debt ceiling, I’d become convinced that they were never going to come to any kind of agreement because they were in fact talking about different things: They both agreed that the patient was sick, but the Democrats diagnosed diabetes, and the Republicans diagnosed cancer. The Democrats were saying that as long as the patient stayed on insulin — i.e., as long as the patient could issue new debt — he wouldn’t lose his toes, go blind, and succumb to impotence; the Republicans were saying that if they didn’t get in there and start cutting right away, he would die. The Democrats were “conservative,” saying that if the patient started eating better and exercising a little bit he’d eventually come around; the Republicans were intent on using the patient’s illness as an occasion for a little experimentation, an opportunity to prove that if they preemptively excised his toes, eyes, and penis he’d get along just fine, and might even be motivated to get off his ass and get a freaking job….
Apart from situations over which we may have even less control than we do over the weather…. What’s on the schedule today?
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
Freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, a tax-bashing Tea Party champion who sharply lectures President Barack Obama and other Democrats on fiscal responsibility, owes more than $100,000 in child support to his ex-wife and three children, according to documents his ex-wife filed in their divorce case in December.
arguingwithsignposts
Moving this up from cole’s previous thread.
magurakurin
The dollar plunged in Japan today. Last night the news announcers were trying to explain what was going on and when they got to the point of explaining that the whole problem could simply be removed raising the debt limit they got twisted puzzled looks on their faces. It was beyond their comprehension that a country would be doing this to itself when it had no clear need to. It was funny and sad at the same time. They more or less think the States is off it’s fucking nut over here.
kdaug
@magurakurin: A lot of us think we’re off our fucking nut over here, too. (Also).
JPL
Raven, Walsh was on CBS this morning explaining how even if we don’t raise the debt ceiling we will not default. The interviewer tried a few times to get him to explain but of course he didn’t. She did not ask him about his own personal finances.
Linda Featheringill
Morning folks.
I found it interesting that a couple of Dem representatives are urging Obama to use the constitutional option.
nashuatelegraph.com/news/927433-196/disagreement-whether-obama-can-raise-limit.html
Montysano
From the Esquire link:
Seems about right.
lacp
If the 27% really, really are true believers…..we’re so screwed:
scienceblog.com/46622/minority-rules-scientists-discover-tipping-point-for-the-spread-of-ideas/
JPL
Lacp, yup. The tea party has a forum thanks to the MSM.
Wag
@lacp
The researchers should have had two diametrically opposed idea competing each with the same formulation I have no doubt that earth flat ideas would get stuck at 27% under that kind of scenario.
El Cid
Goldman Sachs continues to be smeared by simplistic paranoids unfamiliar with the subtle workings of the financial industry and the impossibility of commodities speculation and monopoly manipulation.
Monopolistic (or oligopolistic) hoarding is a natural part of the workings of the Free Market. Anyone unhappy with the collection of aluminum supplies in a few hands could easily switch to some other metal, leading to price changes under the Laws of Supply and Demand, right?
El Cid
Also, the portrayal of “Al Qa’ida” as free agents whom can be defeated by drone attacks within Somalia continues to instead develop as the standard model of terrorists as state and state-elite funded insurgents.
Chris Gerrib
My Congressman (Peter Roskam, R-Il) holds “telephone town halls.” These are conference calls that one gets randomly invited to join. I attended one last night, and was pleased to hear five (5!) people in a row tell him to raise taxes and raise the debt ceiling. Two of the callers were very clear that they were long-time Republicans.
Alas, all is not well – there was one guy who said we defaulted back when we went of the gold standard so just do it again, and 70+ year-old lady who doesn’t like Obama flying around in Air Force One. But still, 5 out of 7 has to be good news.
Linda Featheringill
OT but mildly amusing:
Headline of a Yahoo news item states that the founder of the Knights Templar claims he has no connection to the Norway murderer.
Wow. He must be pretty old by now!
Trollenschlongen
I love Ted Rall.
On other matters relatedly: I don’t get an answer to this, so I will try again.
Rather than negotiate with the Repubs, who are not acting in good faith and may well be insane, why doesn’t Obama simply say “give me a clean debt ceiling increase bill, without complications, or I will take my chances on the 14th ammendment?”
Wouldn’t this calm the markets and citizenry with the added bonus of telling the pukes to fuck off?
lacp
Trollenschlongen,
Because of all the smoke and mirrors about the 14th amendment, invoking it might just make the markets crazier. I happen to think it’s a legitimate option, but there has been a lot of talk against it that probably reduces its value as a hole card.
Trollenschlongen
But it seems strange that a lot of that “talk against it” comes from the WH, thus devaluing one of its own bargaining chips. I don’t get it.
HyperIon
A very sad parody of what RFK once said…in To Seek a Newer World.