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I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories. Occam’s razor is usually correct. Republicans have a clear agenda. Many of the rabid right-wing players such as the Coors family, the Koch brothers, Trevor Rees-Jones and Harold Simmons try to keep a low profile so they’re shadowy figures but not secret. What these conservative sugar daddies say is what ultimately comes out of Mitch McConnell(R-KY) and John Boehner’s(R-OH) mouth and becomes part of the far Right conservative agenda. If someone said these conservatives had decided to destroy America as we know it, much in the way they have tried to destroy Medicare as we know it. That might seem a little over the top for even the most partisan Democrats or liberals. One definition of de facto is to do something in practice though not necessarily by design. It may be that Republicans are not plotting to destroy millions of Americans and their families, it either just looks that way or many are such tools they do not realize that is what they are doing. The attempt to hold the budget, thus programs such as Medicaid Medicare, hostage by using threats to not rise the debt ceiling is one such unintended plot. Another would be the attempt by conservative governors and legislators to make states and ultimately the national economy worse by making drastic budget cuts and huge lay offs of public employees rather than rise revenue, New Fiscal Year Brings Further Budget Cuts to Most States, Slowing Economic Recovery

States have enacted deep cuts in education, health care, and other important public services in their budgets for fiscal year 2012 (which begins July 1 in most states). It is the fourth year in a row of budget-cutting for states, and the 2012 cuts are deeper than in past years. Of the 32 states that have enacted budgets, as least 24 are imposing significant cuts. These cuts will delay the nation’s economic recovery and undermine efforts to create jobs. These enacted budget cuts will cause hundreds of thousands of Arizona families to lose health insurance, force the shortening of the school year for 86,000 preschoolers in Georgia, sharply increase university tuition in North Carolina and Washington, and cost jobless disabled individuals in Michigan one-quarter of their cash assistance, among a range of other impacts. [ ]…The cutbacks in services that many states enacted are not entirely necessary, because they have been exacerbated by federal and state actions and failures to act. The federal government, for example has provided $165 billion in emergency health and education funding to states, primarily through the 2009 Recovery Act, but those dollars are mostly ending June 30. For their part, many of the states that will implement very deep cuts in 2012 have failed to raise new revenue to replace some of the revenue lost to the recession. Some states even added to the cutbacks needed by reducing corporate taxes or other taxes — an ineffective strategy for improving economic growth that likely will do more harm than good. Cutting state services not only harms vulnerable residents but also slows the economy’s recovery from recession by reducing overall economic activity. When states cut spending, they lay off employees, cancel contracts with vendors, reduce payments to businesses and nonprofits that provide services, and cut benefit payments to individuals. All of these steps remove demand from the economy. Moreover, many of the services being cut are important to states’ long-term economic strength. For instance, research shows that in order to prosper, businesses require a well-educated, healthy workforce. Many of the state budget cuts described here will weaken that workforce in the future by diminishing the quality of elementary and high schools, making college less affordable, and reducing residents’ access to health care. In the long term, the savings from today’s cuts may cost states much more in diminished economic growth.

CBPP can be a little long winded and wonky but this report is relatively brief and says about the same thing – States That Cut The Most Funding Lost The Most Jobs: Analysis. If there is a conspiracy to make the economy worse, to drag out the recession or to make President Obama look as though he is fumbling you have to admit its a pretty clever way to accomplish that goal. If in the mean time conservatives destroy the United States of America and replace it with the United States of Pottersville, it is not as though conservatives would feel any shame or remorse. Its tough luck, that’s the way capitalism or more precisely their immoral and corrupt form of capitalism works.

The U.S. is a sophisticated audience when it comes to conspiracies and mysteries what with all the spy novels and police detectives on TV so any plot to destroy the country would have to have at least two parts. That brings up to the debt ceiling which Republicans raised seven times during the Bush Debacle. If that were not enough fat filled multilayered hypocrisy, Republicans voted for the Paul Ryan(R-WI) deficit reduction plan twice. A plan that would have increased the deficit so much it would violate the terms of McConnell and Boehner’s current demands. Boehner voted for the Ryan plan, but walked out on budget talks that would have reduced the deficit more. Because we want to be reasonable. Because we do not want to be shrill. Because there is no conspiracy on the part of the Republican party to cripple the U.S. economy for another decade or more, we’ll just mark up these strange and blatantly contradictory actions up to coincidence. It just looks like a concerted effort by American hating stooges to sabotage the country. Everyone knows that conservatives are all uber patriots who would never do anything to cripple America, like they would never lie to us about WMD and get thousands of Americans killed or maimed. To the Limit

Many commentators remain complacent about the debt ceiling; the very gravity of the consequences if the ceiling isn’t raised, they say, ensures that in the end politicians will do what must be done. But this complacency misses two important facts about the situation: the extremism of the modern G.O.P., and the urgent need for President Obama to draw a line in the sand against further extortion. [ ]…But confidence isn’t the only thing at stake. Failure to raise the debt limit would also force the U.S. government to make drastic, immediate spending cuts, on a scale that would dwarf the austerity currently being imposed on Greece. And don’t believe the nonsense about the benefits of spending cuts that has taken over much of our public discourse: slashing spending at a time when the economy is deeply depressed would destroy hundreds of thousands and quite possibly millions of jobs. [ ]…And the reason Republicans are doing this is because they must believe that it will work: Mr. Obama caved in over tax cuts, and they expect him to cave again. They believe that they have the upper hand, because the public will blame the president for the economic crisis they’re threatening to create. In fact, it’s hard to avoid the suspicion that G.O.P. leaders actually want the economy to perform badly.

In terms of just one’s humanity it would be best to get past this as soon as possible with a raised debt ceiling. Millions of Americas have already suffered enough. On the other hand Republicans will have sabotaged themselves in away that defies any imagined plot against them. Think of all the incredible conspiracies Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, Michele Bachmann, Fox News, World Net Daily accuse moderate Americans of plotting against conservatives. We could have never come up with anything as effective as debt ceiling Armageddon.

As fun or scary or tragic as all that might sound, the President may pull the Constitution card – Section 4 Of The 14th Amendment Was Designed To Stop Boehner

Balkin explains: Like most inquiries into original understanding, this one does not resolve many of the most interesting questions. What it does suggest is an important structural principle. The threat of defaulting on government obligations is a powerful weapon, especially in a complex, interconnected world economy. Devoted partisans can use it to disrupt government, to roil ordinary politics, to undermine policies they do not like, even to seek political revenge. Section Four was placed in the Constitution to remove this weapon from ordinary politics. In other words, it’s in the 14th Amendment to guard against exactly what Congressional Republicans are doing right now.

If a debt ceiling fight goes to the Supreme Court the odds are in the President’s favor,

Doesn’t it seem like that probability would be pretty high? If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past 11 years, it is that the Supreme Court’s decisions on critical issues are very strongly influenced by political pressure. In a situation where the entire weight of world bond markets was bearing down on Anthony Kennedy’s head, would he really vote to crash the economy and destroy the credit rating of the United States? Would any individual do that? I don’t think even Eric Cantor would, if he were solely and publicly responsible for the decision. The ability of the GOP to push the government to the brink of default, and possibly ultimately over it, depends on the diffusion of responsibility: Republicans can only do it because they can hold Democrats to blame. It’s also driven by political vulnerability: Republicans have gotten themselves into a spiraling tea-party-driven political dynamic where they seem, on issue after issue, to be incapable of voting for any proposals that a Democrat might be able to accept, for fear of the consequences from their base. Anthony Kennedy does not have to fear a primary challenge, and if the United States’ ability to pay its debts comes down to his single vote, he’ll have no excuse. Maybe I have no idea how these things work. But I can’t see a Republican Supreme Court going toe to toe with the entire massed forces of Wall Street and not blinking.

There are no guarantees, but the Robert’s Court has well established itself as in the pocket of Wall Street interests. Bond and derivative traders may not care about working class jobs, but they do care about money.