This guy says he's willing to bring down whole U.S. economy if he doesn't get his way. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Just a reminder on why we're even in this mess tonight: it's self-inflicted. Entirely. It's entirely political, entirely partisan, entirely hard-right ideological, and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with the "debt ceiling," or even the deficit, except as proxy for the one and only thing that does matter to Republicans: cutting social programs. Fixing the tax structure? Forget it. Deficits? Hell, Republicans have voted for deficits for a fine long time now. Didn't bother them. They even said it "didn't matter"—remember that one?

So why are we talking about "catastrophe" all of a sudden? Because they want to talk about it, and because they have found in the debt ceiling a fine hostage that the crazier among them aren't afraid to shoot.

We're at this point because of the Bush tax cuts. That's the one biggest contributor to the deficit, and it was the sole reason for the last of these hostage-taking sessions by Republicans. They demanded that we not let them expire. Didn't give a crap about the deficit then.

We're at this point because Republicans insist that the rich pay not one penny more in taxes, despite enjoying the lowest effective tax rates in modern U.S. history. Instead, Republicans demand cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Straight-up class warfare, though they will send for the fainting couch if you point that out.

We're at this point because no matter what proposal McConnell or another Republican comes forward with, within the same week they've walked away from the talks again, demanding still more, and insisting that their own proposal isn't enough.

We're at this point tonight because McConnell is currently filibustering a bill that, in large part, is his own damn right-wing proposal (see above). But he's not done taking hostages yet.

We're at this point because our own news media is too goddamn stupid to recognize when one side is doing something truly extremist in nature—never done before, and something both sides did without much bluster—and insists that no, both parties must somehow be at fault.

I would make a terrible president, because if I were president right now I would kick McConnell out on his smug little ass, let the government shut down, and tell him to f---ing get back to me when he felt like being a damn American again. No, I suppose, I'm sure the entire Village can tell us that what we need now is compromise with economic terrorism (and really, if you insist on collapsing the entire U.S. economy unless you get your way, and every shred of your way, "terrorist" seems an appropriate word) all because some small subset of especially pea-brained Americans wet their collective pants the moment a non-lily-white American assumed the office of the presidency. Not a one of those "tea partiers" knew what the damn "debt ceiling" was before Obama came to office, but suddenly now it's a goddamn apocalypse.

All we have to do is do the same thing we've done every other time: make a few blustering speeches and then pass the damn bill, just like always. Should we talk about cuts? Sure, what the hell. Knock yourself out with this "austerity" crap. But maybe we ought to be passing "austerity" crap one-by-one, each proposal on its own merits, rather than simply insisting on blowing up the entire American government and markets unless we cut this month's fantasy list of programs that the most extreme of conservative Republicans just don't like. During, you know, the worst freaking recession since the Great Depression. And don't give me any of that "recession is over" garbage. Oh, sure—for the wealthy, it's been over for some time. On the street, it's not over until the jobs come back, and the money comes back, and all the shuttered storefronts in town find new owners to take them on.

This has been the worst display of governmental incompetence for a very, very long time, and that is saying something. If ever we needed an example of partisanship clearly and unambiguously taking precedence over the economic needs of the country, this would be the textbook example. Let's hope we still even have textbooks a year from now, though, because the one thing have been Republicans are being most unyielding on is the demand that we do all of this all over again within six months or a year or so, in order to let them extract even deeper cuts and even more asinine demands.

Crooks, the lot of them.