Robert Reich in Why the Right-Wing Bullies Will Hold The Nation Hostage Again and Again properly writes:
I hope the President decides he has to take a stand, and the sooner the better. Last December he caved in to Republican demands that the Bush tax cut be extended to wealthier Americans for two more years, at a cost of more than $60 billion. That was only the beginning . . .
The problem though is not just the president's problem. As Nicholas Kristof writes in
Our Cowardly Congress
Democrats excoriated Republicans for threatening to shut down the government, but this mess is a consequence of the Democrats’ own failure to ensure a full year’s funding last year when they controlled both houses of Congress.
That’s when the budget should have been passed, before the fiscal year began on Oct. 1. But the Democrats were terror-stricken at the thought of approving spending bills that Republicans would criticize. So in gross dereliction of duty, the Democrats punted.
As Reich states
Last night he gave away more than half the sandwich — $39 billion less than was budgeted for 2010, $79 billion less than he originally requested. Non-defense discretionary spending — basically, everything from roads and bridges to schools and innumerable programs for the poor — has been slashed.
The right-wing bullies are emboldened. They will hold the nation hostage again and again.
In a few weeks the debt ceiling has to be raised. After that, next year’s budget has to be decided on. House Budget Chair Paul Ryan has already put forward proposals to turn Medicare into vouchers that funnel money to private insurance companies, turn Medicaid and Food Stamps into block grants that give states discretion to shift them to the non-poor, and give even more big tax cuts to the rich.
Only not only did President Obama give away more than half the sandwich, the democrats in congress acted in concert with him. And then there is the Paul Ryan proposed budget. As Kristof points out the
. . . the new Republican initiative would worsen government debt problems, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The C.B.O. (whose numbers Republicans regularly use to attack Democrats) estimates that with current trends, debt will reach 67 percent of gross domestic product in 2022. But it finds that under the Republican plan, because of increased tax cuts, debt would reach 70 percent of G.D.P.
As Paul Krugman points out the Paul Ryan proposal is both
Ludicrous and Cruel. So what happens next?
Next on the Agenda for Washington: Fight Over Debt.
Congressional Republicans are vowing that before they will agree to raise the current $14.25 trillion federal debt ceiling — a step that will become necessary in as little as five weeks — President Obama and Senate Democrats will have to agree to far deeper spending cuts for next year and beyond than those contained in the six-month budget deal agreed to late Friday night that cut $38 billion and averted a government shutdown.
So what happens if democrats and Obama don't agree?
Once the limit is reached, the Treasury Department would not be able to borrow as it does routinely to finance federal operations and roll over existing debt; ultimately it would be unable to pay off maturing debt, putting the United States government — the global standard-setter for creditworthiness — into default.
The repercussions in that event would be as much economic as political, rippling from the bond market into the lives of ordinary citizens through higher interest rates and financial uncertainty of the sort that the economy is only now overcoming, more than three years after the onset of the last recession.
I have heard much about how pragmatic Obama is. Is this really pragmatic? Was not passing a budget before elections pragmatic? Did not passing a budget help democrats win any seat in congress? Did giving tax cuts to the rich make a damn difference about this years budget?
The sad truth is that the time is past for democrats and the president to educate the people and the voters. He is running for reelection? Why? If the bullies win the slight bubble in employment will cease and we will enter the "Greater Depression." So you think Obama will be reelected? Even Christine O'Donnell running with Donald Trump would be able to beat Obama.
People follow bullies and that is what Republicans are. People will fight bullies when someone stands up to them. That is what we democrats must do.