Default Watch: Episode 3

This is compelling theater. In a black humor kind of way.

One of the things we are learning is that a large number of people in Congress have no clue about national budgets and stuff like that. This is despite the fact that they are the ones overseeing everything. I am sure there are many Democrats who are clueless, but at the moment it is the Republicans who are revealing their copious ignorance.

A frequent riposte coming from the extremists – I am hereafter calling them the “Ultras” in honor of the anti-reform anti-democracy Tories of 1830 Britain – when challenged about the debt ceiling disaster is that we simply have to “prioritize” our payments. They all seem to liken it to their own domestic budgets.

More than one has suggested that we simply have to make a list of things we absolutely need to pay – things like interest on our debt, national parks (yes really), and veterans payments – and then make a list of things we can defer – things like unemployment payments, welfare, anything to do with environmental protection, food safety, and so on. This is, so they say, what they do themselves.

One implication of such comments is that a fair number of our Republican representatives are living beyond their means and have experience in leaving bills unpaid. Perhaps they need to take a look at their budgets? But, moving along …

The point lost on these Ultras is that the consequences are a tad different for the federal government. Reneging on its contractual obligations, all of which been approved by Congress I should add, undermines the creditworthiness of the nation under any circumstance. And, as I have pointed out, would require draconian and immediate cuts that would plunge us into a deep recession.

Plus, and this is the key: prioritization by whom?

Last I looked we were deadlocked precisely because we can’t settle our priorities. That’s without a gun to our heads. The addition of the gun has simply made things worse.

Aaah, but the Republicans are sneaky devils. They are now suggesting we do a piecemeal re-opening of the government. They are making statements like:we all want the parks open, so let’s fund them and so on, leaving only the stuff we disagree about closed”.

Wow. How reasonable.

Until you give about two seconds consideration to it. Then you realize that a piecemeal approach is simply prioritization via a different route. Either way the end result is that the parts of government the Republicans don’t like remain closed and everything else is re-opened. So its a heads we win, tails you lose offer. No wonder the White House is ignoring it.

Which brings up another point: every time we hear a plaintive and innocent call from a Republican to open “negotiations” we should all ask “negotiate what?”. It turns out that the only things they want to negotiate are things they want cut. So their idea of a negotiation is akin to hostage taking. It’s their agenda or no agenda. Nothing gets put on the table they don’t want to talk about. Like tax increases. Or cuts in defense spending. In other words the very act of negotiating is a surrender to their terms.

That’s not negotiation. No wonder the White House ignores them.

Then there’s the small matter of elections.

The Republicans are trying to set aside last years’ elections. It’s as if the results don’t apply to them. They lost. Even in the House, where they won more seats, they garnered far fewer votes – they are good at gerrymandering – and so have a tainted hold on power even there.

Here’s the point they seem to ignore: elections count. Especially in a democracy. Duh.

Yet here we are with the Republicans getting all upset that they cannot ram through their attack on social spending. So, rather than play by the rules of a democracy, they subvert it. They hold it to ransom.

That’s why they’re extremists. That’s why they’re Ultras. And eventually they’ll go the way of those original Ultras. They will disappear.

But between now and then they’ll do a lot of damage.

America’s system of government has never been democratic in any purist sense. It has always been full of choke points designed to give minorities – small states, slave states, and the countryside – a veto over the unwashed masses – everyone else. That crippled democracy is why we have today’s mess. The majority cannot win the day, and the minority effectively legislates against the majority’s will. Or, at least, it sets the agenda. Plus it can destroy the good standing of the nation by throwing a hissy fit.

It’s puerile. It’s pathetic. It’s profoundly undemocratic. But it’s America.

Great theater.