Bizarro World

The new Teaparty negotiating tactic seems to be "Unless I get what I want, I kill the country." In a rational world, the debt ceiling vote would be a clean vote and everyone can debate the budget separately. But today, little Ricky Cantor says the Republicans will let the debt hit the ceiling. Mitch McConnell has asked Senate Republicans not to filibuster the vote. He wants the Democrats to be fully responsible. But that strategy may have gone down the tubes today as Rand Paul has vowed to filibuster raising the debt ceiling. John Boehner wants to attach all sorts of draconian budget cuts on top of the bill. Paul Begala, Democratic strategist, says that Republicans are playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun, pointing out themselves.

Just a point of fact--the debt ceiling will have to be raised and very frequently if the Ryan Plan were approved in any event. Yet we have Sean Hannity talking about Obama wanting to raise the debt ceiling. This is not an optional matter. What Republicans are playing with is the total credit of the United States. The credit markets would enter chaos, interest rates would dramatically rise, the market would crash in ways that make 2008 look tame, and there would probably be a global fiscal metldown and the dollar would no longer be used as a reserve currency because we would not be seen as creditable. And all this to score a political point against President Obama.

I agree with Begala in a way but the problem is that President Obama must spell out the consequences of these actions by the Republicans. It is a frontal assault on all of America. We are not broke by any means and there are no winners in this--even the GOP corporate funders would be devastated and all those with 501 (K)s would take serious hits. It is not clear to anyone how America would recover.

The debt issue is coming to a real flashpoint because it's likely that Japan will have to sell American treasuries to recover from the Tsunami and the nuclear accident and China is experiencing a trade deficit so that purchasing more treasuries may be off the table. That's why President Obama's speech tomorrow on his long-term strategies to curb the national debt is important. External events are driving us to have a plan in place for the next few years and not the long horizon of the Ryan Plan, which can not meet any of his goals. The question for Republicans is who do they think will buy treasuries when their own plan intends to add almost $15 more trillion to the nation debt.

Early word about the Obama speech has clarified that he will use only some of the Bowles-Simpson recommendations and add considerably more of his own. I trust that he has developed a plan since he formed an advisory committee on the national debt headed by Paul Volcker before he even took the oath of office. Advance word about his restoring past tax brackets have met with an absolute refusal by John Boehner, who has previously said that everything, including tax hikes should be on the table. For all the chatter that Boehner is being blackmailed by the teabaggers, one should realize that these issues have to be decided somewhat rationally.

The objective problem is that taxes must be raised, even if you cut programs. The United States has created for itself a revenue problem that has existed for at least ten years. But Americans will not support tax hikes unless they understand the broader context. With the right-wing media machine, I fear that may be close to impossible. Bernie Sanders' millionaire surtax is probably the way to sell tax increases because it plays on populism. Obama's more methodical, measured approach will get lost in the din.

What is really fascinating is that there has been no uproad among the 55 and younger about Paul Ryan's plan. Eric Cantor was blunt in saying that Social Security and Medicare would not exist for those his age or younger. There is no financial reason for this to be true, it's simply an ideological position.

We are hearing again that America has the highest corporate tax rates in the world, even though corporate taxes compose only 6% of the government's total revenue. In fact,if you paid any tax this year, you are contributing more to the government's revenues than the top 100 American corporations combined. And you are effectively paying a higher personal rate than the average corporate rate.

To grabble with these issues, you're into sophisticated stuff. I can imagine the GOP attaching Medicare privatization to a debt ceiling bill. Something that needs extensive study and debate used as a simple throwaway. The same applies to most of the next budget debate. Are we actually going to have hearings in the House on the budget? There were none about the financial consequences of de-funding the Affordable Care Act. You don't like it? It doesn't matter what the consequences.

This raw, bullying style negotiation seems to be dominating the political landscape . For instance, The Wisconsin Supreme Court race has raised so many issues concerning how Prosser managed to find enough votes to win that it deserves for the public's piece of mind a recout. Well, Prosser is trying to bully Kloppenberg in not seeking a recout. Governor Scott Walker today threatened that if the Supreme Court race is not resolved soon,he will be "forced" to pay off tens of thousands of workers. Why? There is no financial reason for this. It's just strongarm tactics.

Viscerally the American people are reacting against all this. 48% of Americans now believe--with justification--that the GOP is an extreme party. Almost all the bullies are seeing their approval ratings nose-dive. Boehner has lost 18% in just two weeks. Yet nothing the public believes seems to matter to any of these people. And the sad fact of the matter is that they may be right. After Citizens United,the actual influence of citizens in our political system has been rendered negligible. The progressive reaction against Obama mirrors this frustration that we are all being pushed under the bus by a gang of brownshirts.

I have other problems. They relate to Paul Krugman's attacks on the Ryan Plan as fraudulent. If you go through almost all the proposals being floated by the GOP at both the federal and state level they are so extreme but they also would not achieve even what they say they want. And, here you look behind the scenes of who benefits and even those corporate interests don't either. It is all nonsense.

But the Washington media lets them get away with this. An example of this syndrome is the exchange the Today Show had with Bill Cosby about Donald Trump. Cosby snorted about Trump's birther statements and then the host said,"well, you will have to seriously think about Trump if he runs for President." Bill Cosby,"No, I won't. he's not a serious person." Just because you are crazy and can get on camera doesn't make you legitimate, except here in Washington.

The Donald is tied with Huckabee for number 1 favorite for the Republican nomination, according to the latest CNN poll. Romney is fifth. What does that tell you about the state of the Republican Party?

David Frum is worried that if Mitt Romney gets the nomination and loses, then it will only solidify the teabaggers and that the GOP will doubledown on nutland in 2014 and 2016. What's interesting about Frum and Brooks ,et all, they do not realize how far gone the party is anyway.

My advice to Democrats is to be Democrats. You can not rely on independents. The recent polling shows that independents, who voted 57% for Republicans last elections have totally reversed their position in massive voters' remorse. If Democrats stand against the insanity, the independents should follow. But these people are close to the nuttiness of the GOP.