The TEApublicans Threaten to Shoot the Hostage: The Democrats Load the Gun

This is a deal? Give them everything they want and promise them a chance to fight for even more in the future? Are the American people supposed to have ‘faith’ that somehow the Democrats are going to learn to fight between now and the next dust-up they have planned? They just handed over their ass on a silver platter and now they want everyone to believe that they are going to stand tough in the future.

What future? They keep selling the future off with capitulation after capitulation to the money interests that fund their campaigns. The first thing that the Democrats always give in to is any tax protections for the corporations and wealthiest people in the country. The end result of every negotiation they enter into is that the American working class is left holding the bag.

This debt ceiling debate is nothing more than a bad sequel to the health care debate. It’s the same old refrain; the same as it was with ending the Bush tax cuts: “We tried our best, the big bad TEApublicans wouldn’t give in, so we gave in enough for both parties.” Aren’t the American people tired of watching their quarterback throw to an open receiver just so he can run down and rip the ball out of their hands and give it to the other team?

If the TEApublicans can hold the country hostage in order to force this travesty of a bill, why can’t the Democrats do the same thing to force the President to invoke his powers under the 14th Amendment? The President has little more than 24 hours left to ensure that America pays the bills it has already accrued. That is part of his job description, according to the constitution. Don’t help him put this on the backs of the American people. Force him to raise the debt ceiling as a stand-alone issue and then put up a real fight on the issues that the TEApublicans wrongly attached to it.

That is the kind of negotiating the American people deserve. Why is no one standing as tough for the American working class, the middle class, and the impoverished, as they are for the corporations and the wealthiest in this country? Corporations and the wealthiest keep chalking up the bills and the government keeps reaching into the peoples wallets to pay for them. It seems to be one, big, on-going bail-out.

There are no jobs being created in this bill. There is no relief for the people being thrown out of their homes and into the street. The only thing the American people get out of this bill are more cuts, and more responsibility for the debts accrued by the wealthiest Americans. The corporations and the wealthy get to keep their tax cuts. The other 99% of the American people get to continue to pay for them, and more.

You’ve gotta hand it to the TEApublicans, they seem to know how to put up a fight. Or, at least that seems to be the way the script has been written. The TEApublicans take a position and stand firm; the Democrats feign a fight and then fall down. It’s like a ‘Big-Time Wrestling’ match., the winner pre-ordained. The Democrats either can’t figure out how to use their majority, or they simply refuse to. If this were a boxing match they’d be investigated for taking a dive.

This is not a deal. This is a give-away. The TEApublicans took the country hostage and demanded a ransom. The Democrats have paid the ransom, with interest and a generous gratuity, and then provided the bullets, loaded the gun, and lined up the sites for a nice clean head-shot.