debt-ceiling

Step back from the day-to-day, hour-to-hour details of the debt-ceiling negotiations for a minute and look at the bigger picture. Look what we're in the middle of. Our legislators are being stampeded by a manufactured "crisis" into profoundly changing the nature of our country and who our economy is "for," on extremely short notice, against the clear wishes of the majority of the public. They are doing so without following the long-established process for due consideration of important issues; they are not holding hearings, not giving time for public input, not going through committees... The act of negotiating with these hostage-takers at all is itself a violation of our established, democratic system. The question to ask is not, "What painful cuts should we agree to to save our country," but rather, "Why are we engaged in this anti-democracy exercise at all?"

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Republicans took the unemployed hostage and won huge tax cuts for the rich that greatly worsened the deficits. Then they took the government hostage, threatening to shut it down if they didn't get what they wanted, and won big concessions. Now they are threatening to take the full faith and credit of the United States hostage by blocking the debt ceiling increase. more »

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