Sadly this greed is well represented in our country by Republicans and Democrats, especially in the leadership. They share not our sense of urgency or pain. For many of them they are satisfied with continuing the policies that enrich them at bankrupt us. And nowhere are they represented more zealously than with the Republicans that now control the House of Representatives.

Yes these are the folks that want to run around and whine about the debt and deficits they themselves ran up under their god-king George W. Bush. They want to lecture us about the measures taken to try and repair the damage they did to this country when they controlled everything. Now that the bubble has burst and the bill for their incompetence is coming due they are determined to do one thing. Protect themselves and those they represent from sacrificing anything.

Now they have walked out of compromise negotiations to try and find a way for everyone to share the sacrifice of our crashed and weakened economy along with the debt caused by nothing "tricking-down" for thirty years. They say we must get serious about tacking our debt but when it comes down to it what they are saying is that the poor, children, and the elderly need to get serious about our debt. They want a free pass for their share and refuse to negotiate or concede anything:

“As it stands, the Democrats continue to insist that any deal must include tax increases,” Mr. Cantor said in a statement. “There is not support in the House for a tax increase, and I don’t believe now is the time to raise taxes in light of our current economic situation. Regardless of the progress that has been made, the tax issue must be resolved before discussions can continue.”

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Senate Republican and the party’s other representative in the talks, said later Thursday that he would also skip the next negotiating session as he and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, turned up the pressure on President Obama to play a larger role in the push for a debt limit deal.

“President Obama needs to decide between his goal of higher taxes, or a bipartisan plan to address our deficit,” Mr. McConnell and Mr. Kyl said in a joint statement. “He can’t have both. But we need to hear from him.”

Republicans indicated that talks could resume if Democrats agreed to take any tax increases off the bargaining table. And negotiating setbacks like the decision by Mr. Cantor and Mr. Kyl to walk away are not unusual in serious Congressional bargaining sessions, where talks often then get back on track. But time is running short, and the House and the Senate have only a few weeks left in the summer when both will be in session before running up against the debt limit in early August.

http://www.nytimes.com/...

In other words these Republicans are saying this. Anything that is "bi-partisan" means everyone else caving into them and agreeing that they and the greediest and least patriotic among us represent will sacrifice nothing. As long as the most vulnerable among us do not make all the sacrifice their will be no compromise.

And even as they call for President Obama to play a larger role Democrats have repeatedly told them what it will take to reach a compromise and move forward erasing our debt and bringing deficits under control:

Democrats have repeatedly said that they could not support a budget deal that relies solely on spending cuts and other program changes to produce the more than $2 trillion in savings. Officials said Wednesday’s negotiating session was unusually tense as Democrats sought to get Republicans to commit to some revenue increases in exchange for Democratic concessions on spending cuts.

So indeed this audacity of greed will lead Republicans to fiddle as Rome burns. To them a compromise means that Democrats give them everything they ask for and grant a reprieve to them helping clean up the Republican mess which has poisoned our economy and funded their high and mighty lifestyles on the American credit card. Sadly far too many times Democrats have given into their demands just to get a deal done and because too many of them profit from it and agree.

This time however their can be no backing down. We simply cannot get out of this mess, bring our debt down and wake the economy up without the wealthy paying their fair share. Any compromise that does not include tax increases on the wealthy is not a serious play for anything except to keep alive the audacity of greed which has governed our nation for far too long.

If Democrats cannot win this fight then why does our country even need a Democratic Party anymore??