The deadline for the debt limit is approaching like a missile on October 17th and the Republicans in the House are once again threatening to steer the United States into a default on our obligations and debts. Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew recently warned in an interview that Congress was “playing with fire” and it would be “catastrophic” to let the deadline pass without raising the limit.
"If they [Republicans] don't extend the debt limit," Lew said, "we have a very, very short window of time before those scenarios start to be played out."
So, tell me again how its a stretch of the imagination to call the extreme right wing of the Republican Party “extremists?” Its okay to threaten to destroy the economy of the United States? They pretend to fight for “fairness” of the people. When the economy dives face first off the cliff because of their game of chicken, the dollar collapses onto itself and the Chinese have lost their faith we're going to pay our debts back, will that be “fair” to the people?
Most economists believe that by not raising the debt ceiling so the Treasury may pay the nations bills would result in consequences to the likes of which we have never see. Olivier Blanchard, an International Monetary Fund economist said today,
"If there was a problem lifting the debt ceiling, it could well be what is now a recovery would turn into a recession or even worse.”
The Washington Post recently reported Goldman Sachs as saying we'd see a “rapid downturn in economic activity if not reversed quickly.”
Despite all the evidence to the contrary, a new Pew Center poll has a 64% of Republicans (no doubt the Tea Party wing) surveyed saying that the “country can go past its deadline without economic problems.” This is scarey and not to be taken lightly as the House is an asylum being run by the patients. House members have capitulated to the cause. Even some Senator's like Rand Paul (R-KY) have openly said raising the debt ceiling is not the end of the world.
The President has said repeatedly he would negotiate with House members on financial issues but only if they stopped holding the debt ceiling as their playing card. Yesterday at a press conference he stated,
“I'll talk about anything.” But he reinforced that it won't be over a “ransom.”
He added,
“I apologize you have to go through this stuff every three months, it seems like. And Lord knows, I'm tired of it. But at some point we've got to break these habits."
President is rightly agravated that the Republicans have done everything in their power to cause as much damage to the country as possible.
Speaker Boehner meanwhile, continued his hardline stance and dug his heels in deeper, signaling that the Ted Cruz's of the government had just about completed their takeover of the Republican Party. The long and short of it is: There’s going to be a negotiation,” Boehner said. “The only way this is going to happen is to in fact have a conversation.”
When will the Republicans stop blocking progress and help us fix the nation's problems instead of bringing the nation to the brink of economic collapse time and time?
George Clooney said it best recently when he was asked what he thought of the current shutdown. He said, “I think it is unfortunate we get to this position, but there are an awful lot of cooler heads out there in the Republican Party who don’t want to be held responsible for shutting down the government. Honestly, I have great confidence in this country and the way that we figure things out eventually.”
Let's hope George is right and this Republican madness stops now.