by Jim Hoover

Incredibly, the media has been blaming both Republicans and Democrats for the bogus debt-ceiling crisis. Realistically the blame should be shared 90% Republican and 10% Democrat, basically because Republican debt-ceiling hostage-taking can only be successful if their opponents are cowardly.

We are just now seeing some of the economic repercussions of Republican brinkmanship.

Over the last few weeks the stock market has been tanking, investors reacting to the willingness of Republicans to tank the economy in order to get their way. The agreement did not settle the issue. In fact it guaranteed that Republicans are even more emboldened. To wit, Mitch McConnell, Republican Senate minority leader; Eric Cantor, number two Republican in the House; and John Boehner, the House Speaker, actually said this would be the template for further blackmail politics.

Republicans are perfectly willing to continue their political risk-taking, for if the media still perpetrates the fallacy that both parties are to blame, why not decrease Obama’s chances for re-election. After all, Republican leaders have made it clear that defeating Obama in 2012 is more important than prosperity for Americans.

Another nail in the economic coffin — Standard and Poor (S&P), one of three rating agencies, also got into the equation. They dropped the US’s bond credit rating from AAA to AA+, an action that could make selling our debt billions of dollars more expensive over the years.

It actually is depressing that a few hundred dogmatic ideologues, who are politically vindictive, are able to dictate what happens for over 300 million Americans, indeed for about 7 billion people in the world.

When will other nations finally seek a divorce from a nation tied to such a dysfunctional government, a democracy that doesn’t work, one taken over by just a few miscreants like Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, and John Boehner, one controlled by minority ideas that too many American voters can’t seem to tie to the demagogues who run for office with lying eyes and deceitful rhetoric.

Wall Street investors finally paid attention to the meaning of Obama and the Democrats caving again to such sick Republicans. They know we are on the road to economic ruin, a ruin that Republicans have nurtured since even before they took control of the House of Representatives. It is apparent that hope is gone for any economic stimulus for at least another year and a half, after the 2012 election.

There are no adults left to care about the interests of the unemployed and the destitute. There will be no infrastructure repair, no jobs bills, no aid to states under duress; in fact the House, especially, will do all that it can do to kill the economy.

Republicans in the House already shut down the FAA two weeks ago, and then went on furlough. Just a few days ago, the Senate approved legislation and Obama signed it that put nearly 4,000 furloughed FAA employees back to work.

It was a shutdown that cost the government about $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes and idled thousands of construction workers, adding to already dismal unemployment figures.

The solution was just temporary with the promise that Republicans will do more hostage-taking, hoping to shutdown FAA unions in exchange for funding.

Until the media tells the real story about Republicans acting like misanthropes and Democrats never willing to stand up against Republican bullying, voters will vote with their emotions rather than their brains.

If 2012 brings a Republican government, we are already getting lessons about what Republicans will do: kill Medicare, savage Social Security, privatize public services, and lower taxes even more for the rich and for corporations.

Millions in unrevealed, lobbyist money for 30-second slime-throwing and myriads of deceptive robo-calls gave them a majority in the House of Representatives and in several states. The result — threats of shutdowns, more unemployment, low taxes for the rich, and dysfunctional government, all courtesy of Republicans.

I am not saying that Democrats are perfect solutions – far from it, but it is somewhat like choosing to slit your throat or cause a small abrasion.