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A point that may seem obvious but might not be to many people is this: the GOP did not have to threaten to bring down the economy to get the spending cuts it apparently achieved last night. The president, with backing from most Democrats in Congress, would almost certainly have yielded on those cuts, and probably more, in the normal course of bargaining over the next budget if the Republicans had also been willing to yield on tax increases. It’s important to understand this, because Republicans are going to want to portray their extortion strategy as necessary to achieving the goal of cutting spending and reducing the deficit, but it was not. It was a choice they made in order to get leverage over their opponents. The two parties were bargaining over fiscal matters, as they do every so often, but this time, one side pulled out a gun. That’s essentially what happened. It was an act of crime, not of necessity.
SteveT on August 01, 2011 9:07 AM:
. . . Republicans are going to want to portray their extortion strategy as necessary to achieving the goal of cutting spending and reducing the deficit, but it was not. It was a choice they made in order to get leverage over their opponents.
You have to test fire a nuclear weapon to prove to the world that you have them. And then you have to convince people that you are crazy enough to use one so that they will give in to your demands and leave you alone when you do awful things.
The Republican Party -- the North Korea of American politics.
Darsan54 on August 01, 2011 12:16 PM:
I am totally depressed Republicans seem to feel this is necessary. There is no more democracy, only extortion. There is a need in Republican philosophy to dominate and destroy their opponents. It's everything is a war, an armed conflict and a true death struggle for the most everyday things.
The pity is Obama doesn't see this or willing to deal with it. We are and will be the poorer for it.
SteveT on August 01, 2011 12:31 PM:
Darsan54 said:
I am totally depressed Republicans seem to feel this is necessary. There is a need in Republican philosophy to dominate and destroy their opponents.
The Republicans are True Believers (or they pretend to be). That gives them license to use whatever tactics are necessary to win, because they aren't fighting political opponents, they are fighting blaspheming infidels who are the servants of Satan.
Unfortunately for the country, they are also the faith-healing parents who let their child die from an easily-cured disease rather than commit the sin of using modern medicine.
Dredd on August 01, 2011 1:17 PM:
They did not deal with the fiscal elephantiasis that needs to be dealt with.
Instead they used leeches to draw blood like they did long ago when the ideology of the T-baggers kept the Earth flat.
T-Rex on August 01, 2011 3:13 PM:
As I've observed on another thread, the Republicans have done Ayn Rand proud. She would have loved the way they did this, using the same tactics as William Edward Hickman, on whom she had a swooning crush as a young woman. If you want to know what he did to attract her admiration, and to convince her that he had a "beautiful mind" and that he was unjustly persecuted by a cruel society, just Google him. Not too soon after lunch, however.
melior on August 01, 2011 6:35 PM:
"Deficits don't matter. Reagan proved that."
- Dick "Dick" Cheney
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=deficits+don%27t+matter+cheney
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J.M. Prince on August 02, 2011 1:06 AM:
The real upside here? The Prez is bailed out with all the very memorable drama via the hostage crisis. We can (hopefully) write the campaign ads now. 'With the economy suffering, the GOP held it hostage for months...this crippled the still struggling recovery by reducing consumer and business confidence at a critical time'. It's a very worthwhile meme, still effective for being the truth too. JMP
steve duncan on August 02, 2011 7:35 AM:
Paul, your observations confuse me. The Republicans could have had their desired budget cuts, with agreed upon revenue increases, if only they had done all this willingly? Um, they got what they wanted WITHOUT agreeing to tax increases. In the process they cowed the Democratic Party and Obama. They proved they're willing to play the crazy card and call every bet Dems want to make. When dared to fold a losing hand (yeah, remember all those articles mere days before the final agreement, the ones certain Republicans would end up the bad guys in all this?) they called the Dems bluff. Now they know it works like a charm. Redux, redux, redux. Republicans had nothing to gain by bargaining in your suggested manner. Now the 1% gets to keep all their money and more money is on the way. As for the other 99% (especially the unemployed) well, sucks to be you.