Republicans have become so gripped by pessimism and panic that they  feel they have nothing to lose by rushing into a catastrophe now. But there is a lot to lose, and in these past weeks America nearly lost it. Let's hope that as America steps back from the brink, Republicans remember that it's their job to protect the system, not to smash the  system in hopes of building something better from the ruins.

That's how student radicals think -- not conservatives.

FROM A NY TIMES EDITORIAL ABOUT THE DEBT DEAL

There is little to like about the tentative agreement between  Congressional leaders and the White House except that it happened at  all. The deal would avert a catastrophic government default, immediately and probably through the end of 2012. The rest of it is a nearly complete capitulation to the hostage-taking demands of Republican  extremists. It will hurt programs for the middle class and poor, and hinder an economic recovery.

WANT THE FACTS on the debt deal? The White House has them for you. CLICK HERE (policy wonks and others will be delighted.)

There are major signals tonight (7.30.11) that a deal with the Republicans to stop holding up raising the debt ceiling is in the works. If so, the next question, which won’t jump into the major media for several days, is whether this entire “crisis” was put on for show and political effect in the first place.

CLICK HERE for The TerryReport story, please.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH AMERICAN MEDIA ON THE DEBT “CRISIS”

NEITHER REPUBLICANS NOR DEMOCRATS ARE CAREFUL WITH SPENDING   Read about the truthful sources of our national debt.

           FROM BUSINESSWEEK: “...the posturing about whether and how Congress should increase the debt  ceiling by Aug. has been a hollow exercise. Failure to increase the  borrowing limit would harm American prestige and the global financial  system. But that’s nothing compared with the real threats to the U.S.’s  long-term economic health, which will begin to strike with full force toward the end of this decade: Sharply rising per-capita health-care spending, coupled with the graying of the populace; a generation of  workers turning into an outsize generation of beneficiaries.

NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE HOUSE REPUBLICANS WERE A HUGE MISTAKE

DEBATE ON WHETHER TO DESTROY ECONOMY CONTINUES: THE ONION

The logical question that follows from this point this: why are we going through a “debt crisis” politically now? The reason is fairly simple. It is seen by the Republicans as the best way they can destroy Obama’s presidency and, what’s more, many of the new tea pot inspired members of the House pledged away their decision making powers on the debt ceiling and taxes when they were running for office. They, and we, are stuck. If one were going to seriously address the issue, it wouldn’t likely start in the first place with freshman members of Congress causing a impasse and threatening to make it worst.

David Frum, a well known Republican in years past (I donj’t know what he is now, but he seems to be much more of an independent commentator), says that the Republicans in the House want one thing: Obama’s unconditional surrender. Writing at CNN.com, Frum says in trying for everything, they might wind up with nothing. Good point.

Obama offered Republicans a lot of spending cuts if only they would move even slightly to meet him. But Republicans took the view that any  change in current tax rules must be offset by an equal or greater cut in some other tax. Republicans would not agree to alter even the silliest parts of the tax code in ways that raised more revenue. The only deal they would contemplate is one that was 100% spending cuts, 0% tax increases -- that is, all their own way, total surrender by the  president.

Unconditional surrender was the Republican demand in the health care debate. That demand led to an unmitigated defeat.

Unconditional surrender has become the Republican demand in the debt.

WHY THE REPUBLICANS ARE OVER PLAYING THEIR HAND ON THE NATIONAL DEBT

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT

If you only read on opinion column about the debt “negotiations”, read this one by David Frum posted on cnn.com. The link is at the bottom of the article. The entire column has to be read to get the whole idea. Below, are the opening paragraphs.

Washington (CNN) -- Why aren't the Democrats rebelling?

The debt ceiling negotiations have amounted to a succession of retreats and concessions by President Obama.

At this point, the president confronts two possible outcomes in the coming weeks:

Outcome 1: The president and congressional Republicans reach agreement on a budget package weighted overwhelmingly in favor of the GOP. The president  opened negotiations by offering $3 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax  increases. His current offer tilts even further to the GOP: $6 of  spending cuts to $1 of tax increases.

Better still (from a Republican point of view), the spending cuts come from programs  Republicans dislike, like Medicaid, rather than programs they like, like the farm budget. The tax increases meanwhile are designed to be as  acceptable as possible to the GOP: no increases in tax rates, but instead trimming some of the less defensible deductions in the tax code.

Outcome 1 represents a very big win for Republicans over the future shape of the federal government, and a correspondingly big defeat for the president.

Outcome 1 also represents the president's best-case scenario.

The worst-case is Outcome 2. Republicans reject the president's concessions as insufficient. They  refuse to lift the debt ceiling. Denied the legal authority to borrow  further, the federal government exhausts its cash sometime in the next three to four weeks.

At that point, the United States will face some kind of federal bankruptcy: paying some claims, deferring others, plunging the U.S. government into financial crisis and probably plunging the whole world into renewed economic crisis.

How in the world did the president arrive at this disastrous  predicament?

WHEN IS A “CONSERVATIVE” A RADICAL? RIGHT NOW?

We’ve got an unholy mess in Washington, DC, and it is being pushed by people who call themselves conservatives. This has been a slippery term for a long time. It pretty much means whatever you want it to mean, especially if you call yourself one. The national news media have fallen for this sad joke, calling the people in the House “conservatives” when they want to create a kind of counter-revolution to the direction of American government over the last 75 years and are using the threat of default on the national debt to try to get their way. Here’s a sentence from today’s (7.13.11) WashPost dealing with the latest Republican rejection of any compromise on the debt ceiling:

“This has left the talks at a similar standstill, with the staunchly conservative House opposing any plan for passage.”

One can come up with many terms for the House Republicans and the tea party Republicans, but conservative is difficult to apply. First, the word itself: conserve. What is it that these guys are trying to conserve? Second, conservative almost always implies moderation, waiting, turning away change in favor of careful policies that have been tried and tested over many years. What the House is trying to do now is put something in place that is completely untested. They want to knock down taxes (even more), knock down government spending (in anyway possible) and they believe prosperity will result (or they say they do).

This is not a conservative program, but a radical one. The tactics they are using are also radical. Anyone who takes a position in life, which is full of compromises for us all, and says, “Do it my way or I am going to let the whole thing explode”, is taking a radical position, by definition. This is not conservative by any stretch; it is the new absolutism that holds only one group of people in America have all the answers and they must get their way, or else.

How long will it be before major media outlets call this what it actually happens to be? Don’t hold your breath. After a forty year campaign against open media and the effort to present balanced reporting by labeling everything as biased, the national media is frightened and intimidated. In time, the true radicalism of what is being attempted, what is being imposed on Americans, will be clearly seen. When American voters wake up to the gambit being played, and fully understand its implications for themselves and their lives, they are not likely to be very happy.

Doug Terry

LINK TO THE POST ARTICLE

http://tinyurl.com/6zlvrt5