The Navy Yard shooting rampage highlights the ravages of a gun culture, but soon we’ll need to look at the potential carnage caused by the budget fight and its hostage-taking.
Republicans, with Ted Cruz standing at the forefront, are – in effect – figuratively holding a gun to Obama’s head regarding a duly passed piece of legislation — the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or demonized as “Obamacare.” GOP propaganda, funded by some $820 million, mercilessly pounded at the ACA like a hammer in a headache commercial, etching negativity into American voter brains like it’s a Biblical plague.
In a gun culture, the GOP threat goes somewhat like this: “Sign our ransom note to defund “Obamacare” or we’ll take your economy and shoot it through its head.”
After spending his summer vacation burning his cross of “Obamacare” defamation, followed by the threat of economic default, Ted Cruz, a freshman Senator from Texas, called his fellow Republicans cowards, saying “they’re beaten down and they’re convinced that we can’t give a fight, and they’re terrified.” Cruz has been joined vociferously by two other possible 2016 candidates – Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is also with them.
Consequently Speaker John Boehner – his speakership ever weakening – did not rule out trying to defund Obama’s healthcare law in a Republican-majority House vote. Republicans actually think they can force the Senate, controlled by Democrats, into voting on defunding. Even with the weak budget-fight-bargaining shown by Obama in past fights, that is a stretch, though we must admit that Obama’s weak bargaining performances may be giving them hope.
But the danger of the GOP shooting the economy, leaving it critically wounded is a real possibility. Tea Party Republicans are actually too ignorant or too spiteful to know or care about the danger.
Here’s the breadth of the situation and possible death of the economy:
- Deadline 1: To avoid government shutdown, Congress needs to pass a spending bill, called a continuing resolution (CR), to fund the federal government by September 30, 2013. The US government’s 2014 fiscal year starts on October 1, 2013, and if no spending authorization is made, nothing will get funded after October 1st, including social security, our military troops, and, overall, the economy would take a huge hit. The far right, composed of Cruz, his three buddies, and some 50 Tea Party members in the House threaten to shut down the government unless the new budget fully defunds “Obamacare.”
- Deadline 2: The U.S. government will default on past obligations sometime in mid-to-late October unless Congress raises the borrowing limit. It could cause a worldwide crash even worse than we faced in 2008. Even House leadership, not just the Tea Party crazies, wants to use the debt limit to force Congress to delay “Obamacare” for one year.
Just the threat of default on our obligations last summer prompted credit rating agency Standard & Poor to lower the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+, raising our interest payments.
More of a downgrade is possible if this threat continues, but assuredly we will see a record drop in the U.S. credit rating if the default actually occurs. It will mean paying billions of dollars more of taxpayer money in interest on our debt.
Such a self-inflicted wound to our economy caused by a few right-wing radicals, three of which actually believe they can run for president, will be a continuing blight on the rationality, the intelligence and the character of all Americans, especially highlighting the voters who voted for radical members of Congress and the Democrats who gave Republican reason to believe they could take us all hostage.
—————————————————————
Facebook @ ——> Common Good
Facebook @ —–> Promote the General Welfare
Facebook@ —–> Our Ties With the Cosmos
