May 11, 2011

GOP debt ceiling threat: Political suicide?


This week House Speaker John Boehner threatened the White House with refusal to vote to raise the debt ceiling unless $2 trillion in budget cuts are part of the package. Some are calling the republican demand economic terrorism.

“White House spokesman Jay Carney said both Democrats and Republicans agree on the need for deficit reduction,” according to the Daily Kos. “But it would be tantamount to holding the U.S. economy "hostage" by tying the debate over the debt limit to budget cuts.”

Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and other noted economists, as well as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have warned republicans that causing the United States to default on her debts would have worldwide catastrophic effects and should be avoided at all costs. But republicans pandering to the 

Tea Party and corporate lobbyists are defending their threats to destroy the economy in order to get their way. Boehner is also insisting that tax increases on the rich and cutting big oil government subsidies is “off the table” and not negotiable.

“The amazing thing here is that the GOP is making this threat despite having passed a funding bill that adds $1.6 trillion to the national debt, and they've passed a budget resolution that would add $6 trillion to the national debt,” according to Alter Net.

It is painfully obvious that the republicans are not at all interested in reducing the debt. They are pushing a radical right wing agenda that punishes the poor and working class so more money can be shifted through tax breaks to corporations and the rich.

In the mean time, the jobs the republicans promised during their campaigns have still failed to appear.

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