All Out War

There is an all out war between the two major political parties. The Republicans are determined to make the President fail and to destroy the Democratic Party at all costs. The battle ground is both social and economic. There is an old saying that when the elephants fight it is the grass that suffers. In this case it is the country and its people who are suffering. The greatest threat right now is the Republican Party’s attack on our economy. In order to enrich the rich the Republicans want to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Furthermore, they are willing to cause a world wide depression in order to accomplish those goals. They are holding the debt ceiling hostage until their demands a met. This has never been done before because the consequences of this country defaulting on its debts are too destructive for anyone with a conscience to play such foolish games. Interest rates will soar and the value of the dollar will plummet if we allow the Republicans to cause us to default on our debts. Now is the time for extraordinary measures. We simply cannot allow the Republicans to destroy our economy.

Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, has said that not honoring our debts would be unconstitutional. Article 4 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution states in relevant part, “[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law… shall not be questioned.” What this means is that we cannot default on our debts regardless of the debt ceiling! No president has used the 14th Amendment to bypass congress before, but no party has been irresponsible enough to hold payment of our debts hostage before. Forget the Republican crap about the deficit. As the deficit soared under George W. Bush the Republicans raised the debt ceiling seven times without so much as a whimper. I might add that if the Republicans were really concerned about our national debt they would raise revenues by letting Bush’s tax cuts for the rich expire and by getting rid of the loopholes that allow the most prosperous corporations on earth to avoid paying any taxes. Even Republicans raise revenue when they are serious about reducing the deficit. If the President acts in accordance with Article 4 of the 14th Amendment and provides for the continuing payment of the national debt without Congress first raising the debt ceiling, it will diminish the role of Congress somewhat. That is probably not a good thing, but the precedent the Republicans are setting by holding payment of the debt hostage to their destructive agenda is far more dangerous than the precedent that would be set by bypassing Congress in order to meet our obligations.

The Republicans obviously have no qualms about changing the rules or about setting bad precedents in an effort to win their war against the Democrats. They shut down the government when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and they threatened to shut it down again if Bush’s outrageous tax breaks for the rich were not extended. The Democrats under Clinton’s leadership held firm. The Democrats under Obama’s leadership caved in, and the tax cuts for the rich were extended. When the Democrats tried to block Bush’s appointments of right wing Justices to the U.S. Supreme Court the Republicans threatened to do away with the filibuster in the Senate. The Democrats then caved in, and we now have the worst Supreme Court ever. Although the Republicans confirmed the one Supreme Court Justice appointed by Obama, they have used the threat of the filibuster to block over 200 hundred appointments to other positions. They have also used the filibuster a record number of times to block bills that would help us recover from this recession. The Democrats are cautious about changing rules and setting precedents, but like it or not, they are going to have to resort to Republican tactics in order to break through the gridlock the Republicans have created. Harry Reid must modify the filibuster rules in the Senate in order to get this country on the right track again, and President Obama must invoke Article 4 of the 14th Amendment if the Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling without the Democrats caving in to the outrageous demands of the Republicans.

There is little doubt in my mind that if the Democrats do what is right for this nation and thwart the Republican Party’s attacks on our economy and our middle class the Republican Party will have to start acting responsibly again or face extinction. This should be the lesson of the mid-term elections. The people did not see those elections as an ideological choice. Quite frankly, the voters never seem to be able to understand what those ideologies mean. What the voters know is what they are personally experiencing. They know the hardships caused by stagnating incomes as the costs of energy and food continue to increase. They know what will happen if Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are privatized. They know what will happen if the interest rates on their mortgages, credit cards, etc. go through the roof. They know they are getting the short end of the stick and are making all of the sacrifices while the wealth of this nation becomes more and more concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. The people of this country are frustrated by the high unemployment and deceasing opportunities. They want results they can see and feel. They want a political party that will fight to break up the gridlock and speed up the recovery. The Republican Party is unwilling to offer anything positive. It is up to the Democratic Party to demonstrate through its deeds and its words that it is the party carrying out to will of the people.