“I keep talking to other colleagues who have confidence that someone else is working things out,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a freshman member of the Budget Committee. “But I keep looking around thinking, ‘If we’re not doing it, then who is?’” ...WaPo
There are some real issues out there but -- have you noticed or have you lost track of it in the barrage of media? -- we manage to avoid them by focusing on just about everything else. Devout partisanship keeps us both sides from admitting that the media and other destructive members of the push to oligarchy are using us.
The obsession with short term debt is a way of avoiding dealing with long-term reforms needed to prevent financial, economic and political stability. Don't forget, we also have a no less trumped-up concern with long-term deficit as a "crisis" while shrugging off evidence that the rest of the world still wants our paper.
Here's a long-term crisis we should be worrying about: a Congress which has effectively and purposefully become stalemated, with the accent on "stale." For all the emphasis on the fresh energy of the tea party movement, they have become part of the problem, not the solution. They're the Reddi-wip on the corner store's old muffin. The media made the product look good on the screen.
As for the debt ceiling issue, instead of raising it and getting on with the real problems, we can look forward to further distraction. "With an Aug. 2 deadline nearing," the Post reports, we can expect "the threat of turmoil in global financial markets if Congress doesn’t act."
Great! And if the turmoil turns out to be short-term and unimpressive, we'll find ourselves with another issue to terrify us. So don't worry. You can count on successive jolts of fear and triumph doled out at just the right moments to keep you in the game and buying more Reddi-wip.
Boehner and other GOP leaders say they are committed to raising the debt limit, now set at $14.3 trillion, to avoid default, an outcome they acknowledge could prove economically disastrous.
And if that's not enough, the people will create a disaster for Republicans.
Default could also prove politically disastrous: A new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll found that more people say they would blame Republicans in Congress than Obama if debt-ceiling talks broke down.
Before that disaster has stopped being entertaining, football season will have started or there'll be something else to keep us plugged in.
