And yet, they persist

I've heard it said that the US Congress is the least patriotic body in America. After the last few weeks I have come to fully believe it. The most recent performance...which is still going on at this time...has to do with raising the debt ceiling. This is a routine administrative function that makes it possible for the country to pay it's bills. The crisis is entirely the fault of Republican Tea Party freshmen representatives. That is not to say that the problem with the national debt is entirely their fault...there have been decades of foolishness leading up to this point. The US is addicted to low taxes and high spending so we end up borrowing money to buy or build things we want (or somebody wants) and to subsidize farmers or other businesses and support a growing poverty class and enormous military class stationed in almost 200 countries around the world. The thing is...we have already spent the money that we borrowed... so we owe somebody a shitload of money... plus, we still want all that stuff.

The current road to default sits squarely on the shoulders of George W. Bush and the ridiculous tax cut that he and his friends managed to pass...plus the cost of fighting his two wars simultaneously (one being absolutely unnecessary)...plus a financial and regulatory free-for-all and housing crash that led to the Great Recession.

Do you recall the crash of the Soviet Union? They failed because they no longer had the resources or the national will to keep their country together. We smugly observed that this was the inevitable failure of the communist system and the relentless pressure of Our Hero, Ronald Reagan.

I fully believe that we are looking into the same chasm...we are on the downhill slope and have been there a while. Will we slide past the wreckage of the old Soviet Union as we topple into the abyss? Lack of discipline in our government and commercial affairs has brought us to the brink. Now, instead of trying to fix the problem, we have a bunch of congressional "patriots" trying to push us over...and seemingly gleeful about it. These guys are doing what Al Qaida could not do. In some other countries...mostly third world countries but not always...this is where the military would step in and tell everyone in Washington to go home (by the way, is anyone watching for that?).

It is now past the eleventh hour in this crisis...it's more like 11:59... and they still can't recognize that the system will fail unless there is a fundamental change. Instead, they persist at playing political games and blaming tactics. We are way beyond the point for gamesmanship. We have to raise money to run the government -- Surprise!! It takes real money -- our money, not somebody else's money. People who really benefited from the Bush tax cuts -- the wealthy folks who pay little or no taxes -- need to cough up some cash and pay their share. In the meantime, I hope some adult can gain control of the discussion, slap down the Tea Party folks if need be, and get this crisis settled so we can work on the real solution.