SAR #13287

Which part of democracy do Republicans not understand? They lost. Obama won. They should stop pretending that the last five years never happened.

The Story So Far: No deal. No way to reach a deal. And there is no graceful way for the Republicans to back down, so they won't. That's why they've started the bullshit story that the debt ceiling is no biggie, that it is a “good thing” that will force us as a country to live within our income. Which just goes to show how little the Republican right understands of the government's role in the domestic economy and how deadly balancing the budget will be for the country. If the government cuts spending to match taxes, the economy will slow, and as the economy slows, tax income will slow so the government will have to cut spending more and taxes will fall more and so on. When do you figure the revolt will start? When food stamps are done away with, when Medicare and Medicaid no longer exist? Or when the Social Security checks stop coming?

Over, Over There: China's exports fell slightly in September while imports rose by 7.4%, as global demand tapers off. The US can tell them how this movie turns out.

Unclear on the Concept: Angered by the closure of national landmarks due to the government shutdown brought on by Republican hostage taking, a crowd of people who think they are conservatives rallied against President Barack Obama and Democrats and not their own dear leaders for the results of the blackmail tactics they so admire. Eventually their blather was reduced to calling Obama a Muslim and demanding he “put the Quran down”, fall to his knees and surrender to God-fearing Christians – namely themselves. Somehow – maybe it'd be the power of prayer – the government is supposed to continue to operate without funds.

If Only: “Will China’s gambit to undermine the TPP succeed?” Something needs to happen to kill this thing before Obama fast tracks it through Congress and we're stuck with corporations running even more of the world. 
 
Plans: What is it that US troops are going to do (aside from kidnapping, torture, the occasional murder, reckless deaths of civilians via drone and such) that will require that they be immune from Afghan law? And how much was Karzai promised just to get this mooted to the tribal leaders?

Victimology: American conservatives have a remarkable hostility to poor people. Forget trying to cut the SNAP food stamp program and slashing the WIC program, just look at the refusal of 26 Republican governors to expand Medicaid coverage in their states -- depriving millions of poor people of access to Medicaid health coverage at no or little cost to the states. Sixty-eight percent of uninsured single mothers live in the states that rejected the expansion, as do 60 percent of the nation’s uninsured working poor. Why do these successful white men so despise the poor that they have no compassion? What are they afraid of?

Pointedly: “There is a reason we are living under the all-pervading influence of John Maynard Keynes... Keynes won the argument”

The Parting Shot: