US economy: The Tea Party is a real threat to America

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.