Government Fails

I'm A Gettin’ Gone on the 17th? 

Do we need to get our helmets on?   After all, Michelle Bachmann thinks the end times are at hand.   The 'debt ceiling' is coming up fast.

Nancy Pelosi admitted yesterday in Salon.com that the Democratic Party had been ‘enabling’ the Republican Party for many years.  This should not come as a shock to anyone who has followed the neo-liberal path of the Democrats since Carter.  Their whole position was never based on principle, but only related to a macabre dance with the other capitalist party.  Uppermost in their minds was: “What Will the Republicans Do?”  (WWRD)

It was relayed on Washington Week PBS program that Nevada senator Harry Reid, a conservative moderate, is the ‘backbone’ in Obama’s spine during these shutdown negotiations, leading the Democrats – for the first time – to say ‘no.’  Which tells you which wing of the Democratic Party Obama is in. 

The New York Times reported that the Koch brothers recently gave marching orders to the Republicans to prevent a debt meltdown, which would threaten Treasury bondholders, the U.S. currency and the stock market.  The Koch brothers have billions invested in the latter, which might have something to do with their position.  This is why Boner came up with the idea of raising the ‘debt limit’ for another 6 weeks. 

If the U.S. stopped paying bond interest and its other bills, its credibility would take a dive, and might endanger its role as a ‘reserve’ currency and a place where many in the world – like the Chinese - stash their cash.  It would certainly lead to layoffs and a return of a recession – or worse.  BusinessWeek magazine has said that default would be many times worse than the Lehman collapse, as the U.S. owes trillions, which could result in a domino effect of bill-paying failures.

Obama declared to Bloomberg.com that ‘the bond markets will decide who gets paid’ if the debt limit does not get raised.  Could anyone be more blunt about who calls the shots in the Obama presidency? 

The ‘grand bargain’ is still the subtext Obama is using to get the Republicans to pull back from the partial government shutdown and the debt-limit fight.  Everyone has already forgotten about the sequester.  But make no mistake, social security and Medicare are on the backroom table.

This crisis has once again established that the U.S. economy and its two-headed ‘business party’ political system has become untenable.  It is a laughing stock and leftists should make the most of it.  The weakness of the Tea-Party Neo-Confederates can lead to a move to the left over the whole political spectrum. 

Red Frog

October 12, 2013