Progressive Opinion

washingtonmonthly.com — Republicans were warned, clearly and repeatedly, that even going down this road would put America in danger. Even if they hit the brakes before going over the cliff, starting this fiasco in the first place would very likely weaken the nation at a critical time. Republicans didn't care. Even if the debt deal is signed before the deadline, we will pay a price for their monumental stupidity. The United States, thanks entirely to the right's breathtaking stunt, is now seen as a less-safe bet and a less-attractive place for investment. The nation is now seen as more dysfunctional and less responsible. We've been made to look like fools on the global stage, and China has sought to exploit the Republican crisis, to the GOP's indifference.

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alternet.org — If you were a spectator in a sky box seat looking directly down on the Washington debt debate, you’d be seeing a contest both narrow and off to one edge of the field -- like watching a football game being played entirely between the 10-yard line and the goal line. The big items that added trillions to the debt are not even on the field of debate. Because the two teams are not contesting them.

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digbysblog.blogspot.com — When faced with an opposition willing to use lies, extortion and terrorism to achieve its goals, there are two possible responses. The first is equal and opposite aggression: to give as good as you get. But the second is to remain open-handed and and assume that by being the adult, turning the other cheek and giving way to your opponent even if only temporarily, you will seize the moral high ground and let the opponent's own momentum carry him over to his own destruction. That is the essence of what can be loosely characterized as "Eastern" wisdom, a very Taoist or Buddhist approach. In the Christian tradition, this sort of counsel can be found throughout the Book of Matthew. In a more secular vein, it could be called the Atticus Finch approach. Insofar as one gives Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt, he almost surely sees himself as Atticus Finch refusing to punch back even as the villain spits in his face.

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nytimes.com — A deal to raise the federal debt ceiling is in the works. If it goes through, many commentators will declare that disaster was avoided. But they will be wrong. For the deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.

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washingtonpost.com — So this is what we’ve driven the global economy and America’s credit rating to the brink for? This is why Republicans decided it was vital to not lift the debt ceiling to accommodate their own budget’s outsized debt? This is the best the White House could salvage after inexplicably failing to insist that the debt ceiling be raised as part of December’s deal to extend the Bush tax cuts? If you put aside the talking points both sides will peddle, the disappointing contours of the emerging endgame run as follows: First, Washington will do nothing more to boost jobs and growth. The best that can be said is that the spending cuts will be tiny in the next two years, so the feds won’t be contracting demand, save for the end of the stimulus. Our epic jobs crisis remains ignored. Next, as to long-term deficit reduction, the deal remains utterly inadequate -- even if the joint congressional committee the plan would empower to address this succeeds. Here's why.

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The struggle to secure a deal between the Republicans and Democrats to lift the $14.3 trillion cap on the country's national debt is seen by disinterested onlookers as a foolish squabble between self-serving politicians, whose silliness risks potential default on the U.S.'s national debt and a first-order financial crisis. If only it were just an ordinary political squabble. The reason the US is so close to economic calamity is that its politicians have existentially different views of the world. As the US faces stagnation and retreat from "the pinnacle of American greatness", these differences have become crucially important. This goes to the heart of how the U.S. can recover its greatness. Until the Tea Party Republicans are exposed as dangerous charlatans and their support recedes, the threat to the US is ever-present. more »

dailykos.com — Just a reminder on why we're even in this mess tonight: it's self-inflicted. Entirely. It's entirely political, entirely partisan, entirely hard-right ideological, and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with the "debt ceiling," or even the deficit, except as proxy for the one and only thing that does matter to Republicans: cutting social programs. Fixing the tax structure? Forget it. Deficits? Hell, Republicans have voted for deficits for a fine long time now. Didn't bother them. They even said it "didn't matter" — remember that one? So why are we talking about "catastrophe" all of a sudden? Because they want to talk about it, and because they have found in the debt ceiling a fine hostage that the crazier among them aren't afraid to shoot.

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huffingtonpost.com — Let us face the momentous truth: The United States has been rendered ungovernable except on the extortionate terms of the far-right. For the first time in modern history, one of the two major parties is in the hands of a faction so extreme that it is willing to destroy the economy if it doesn't get its way. And the Tea Party Republicans have a perfect foil in President Barack Obama. The budget deal is the logical conclusion of Obama's premise that the way to make governing partners of the far right is to keep appeasing them. He is the perfect punching bag. He can be blasted both as a far-left liberal and as a weakling. We did not have to reach this pass. At any of several points in the past two years, a Democratic president could have called out the Republicans on the sheer perversity of the policies they are demanding.

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washingtonpost.com — Democrats are going to lose this one. The first stage of the emerging deal doesn’t include revenue, doesn’t include stimulus, and lets Republicans pocket a trillion dollars or more in cuts without offering anything to Democrats in return. The second stage convenes a congressional “Supercommittee” to recommend up to $2 trillion in further cuts, and if their plan doesn’t pass Congress, there’s an enforcement mechanism that begins making automatic, across-the-board cuts to almost all categories of spending. So heads Democrats lose, tails Republicans win. It’s difficult to see how it could have ended otherwise. Virtually no Democrats are willing to go past Aug. 2 without raising the debt ceiling. Plenty of Republicans are prepared to blow through the deadline. That’s not a dynamic that lends itself to a deal. That’s a dynamic that lends itself to a ransom. But Democrats will have their turn.

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salon.com — How can the leader of the Democratic Party wage an all-out war on the ostensible core beliefs of the Party's voters in this manner and expect not just to survive, but thrive politically? Democratic Party functionaries are not shy about saying what they're thinking in this regard: Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said polling data showed that at this point in his term, Mr. Obama, compared with past Democratic presidents, was doing as well or better with Democratic voters. "Whatever qualms or questions they may have about this policy or that policy, at the end of the day the one thing they're absolutely certain of -- they're going to hate these Republican candidates," Mr. Mellman said. "So I'm not honestly all that worried about a solid or enthusiastic base.” In other words: it makes no difference to us how much we stomp on liberals' beliefs or how much they squawk, because we'll just wave around enough pictures of Michele Bachmann and scare them into unconditional submission.

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