On the one hand, they have discovered that Grover Norquist can only drag the government into the bathroom by looping the Republican Party around it and dragging them into the same bathtub with the same result. This is a convenient situation for Grover, since the party has its figurative head up its ass, already forming a loop that is astonishingly resistant to being undone.
On the other hand, they have the barons of Wall Street, with more than a passing interest in this situation, growing more impatient with each passing moment, understanding as they do that they could suffer tremendous damage in the event of a default. They also realize that the nihilist TEA Parties that they coopted and financed would be screaming for no bailouts with the same fervor that they demand the destruction of the world's economy. It leaves them wondering if the Republicans in Washington remember what it was that Wall Street paid them to do.
This tension has put Republicans in a quandary, leaving them as uncertain of their future as are the businesses in whose name they supposedly try to avoid uncertainty. In that event, Mitch McConnell has exercised every political calculation to put forward his "Cut, Cap and Balance" proposal, evidently believing that no one would see it for what it is, which is yet another indulgence of his monomaniacal effort to unseat the President. McConnell's low opinion of this president, prompted by his, in McConnell's eyes, otherracialness, is given full rein in this scheme that supposes that Obama has a strong enough power lust to grab at this without seeing that it gives McConnell the opportunity to bludgeon the President repeatedly, right up to the 2012 election for doing what McConnell has done often enough, and should be doing now. At the same time it would sow the seeds for the nation's destruction by limiting what government could possibly spend to no more than 18% of the GDP that they are actively engaged in reducing to zero. No doubt, this was calculated by McConnell to be just enough to wage illegal wars of aggression in service to Wall Street and Big Oil. As the icing on the cake, or perhaps, cracker, it proposes a Constitutional amendment to balance the budget that, in combination with the spending cap, would severely limit the government's latitude for responding to emergencies.
Mitch McConnell thinks he's the smartest guy in town, and the prospects of that continuing delusion look pretty good, but the chances of this exercise in political masturbation being enacted are nil. So, it looks like we had better batten down the hatches for the impending default, unless"
That is, unless somebody remembers what the object of this exercise truly is. It truly is what Mitch Daniels once characterized it as, a bit of legislative housekeeping. This entire situation can be resolved by single sentence legislation that says, "(the applicable bit of the U.S. Code) shall be revised by deleting the number (whatever the current debt ceiling number is) and inserting in its place (whatever the new debt ceiling number would be)." Even Herman Cain could get behind that, it being even briefer than his ideal bill.
Ideally, the new number would not have to be very much higher than the old number, since a legislature seized with an uncharacteristic fervor for wise service to the nation would have agreed that the next legislation to be dealt with would eliminate such a useless and troublesome impediment to governance for good and all.
Then when it is our turn to vote again, the American People, you know, We the People, can take the ideal measure to prevent this hostage taking from returning in the future by voting out every damned Republican on the ballot in numbers that defeat their customary election fraud.
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