There is no deal in Congress about a budget or the debt ceiling. Talks broke down. They have this weekend to fix it before the markets open. If they don’t fix this thing, you won’t have time to move your IRA or 401k before it gets rocked on Monday.
The Republicans walked away from the table, and their responsibility to co-govern this nation - risking default on the national debt for the sake of politics. It should have been a deal marking the turning point about reasoned compromise and how our government addresses its’ fiscal responsibilities. Instead we get a Republican “walk-off” in a huff and an escalation in what is clearly “the most dangerous game.”
On the table? Spending cuts (a Republican golden idol) out-sizing revenue increases by a factor of 4 to 1. All that is required is some compromise, and there’s the rub. Tea Party Republicans welcome the thought of compromise the same way dinosaurs welcomed large meteors. Good faith negotiations and the desire to co-govern have been sacrificed upon the altar of Republican “Tea Party” ideology.
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Much like a child holding it’s breath, the freshman Tea Partiers refuse to give any formal thought to compromise. Life must be easy for them. They really don’t have to think much, just be against everything that smells of compromise or even populist thought. Truly, the hardest thing to open is a closed mind.
Rather than consulting knowledgeable economists, this group seems to refer to some kind of “TPR” (Tea Party Rhetoric) handbook. They spew ideology, not sound economic realities and solutions to the (bipartisan) mess we’re in. But it goes even further than that. Civility and respect – cornerstones of relationship building, is long gone. It has been replaced with the very antithesis of civility. It has been said; “Arrogance and rudeness are training wheels on the bicycle of life -- for weak people who cannot keep their balance without them.” It is the weak that have passed on compromise and co-governance.
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It’s time to remove the training wheels and conduct the people’s business.
What the Democrats have failed to realize is that getting the Tea Party Republicans to negotiate is very much like a farmer trying to teach a pig to sing; it wastes the farmer’s time and it annoys the pig. There is no point to it whatsoever. The pig is never going to sing – and the Tea Partiers are never going to compromise.
They have no interest in co-governing. On the federal level they have been saying from the very start of this Administration that they want this President to be a one-termer. Using record numbers of filibusters, they have made the nation ungovernable. They want to see the President fail, apparently at any cost. No compromise- gridlock – stall – get nothing done – that has been their goal – and let’s face it, they have brilliantly executed this strategy.
At the risk of sounding cliché, Congress should “seize the day, put no trust in tomorrow.” They need to finish this compromise. Those responsible Republicans need to get their Tea Party “freshmen” in line – they need to listen to the adults now. Our country is at stake.
We don’t want to see the tomorrow waiting for us if they don’t.
