Terrorism and the Debt Ceiling…
No, not what you might think.
I think that the entire discussion about the debt ceiling is simply comical, akin to building a house, customizing it, but then refusing to pay the contractor.
But something else struck me today. Now, I am a health services researcher and health policy wonk, but when President Obama said they would not ransom the budget today, it got me thinking about ransoms, and what that terminology means.
I think I understand the GOP goals now. It’s an end game of Financial terrorism. McConnell and those that are doing this are committing an act of financial terrorism.
I know, I know, that’s rather strong language, so let me explain my reasoning:
Terrorism is a weapon used by people who understand that they will lose a real power struggle and therefore is derived from a position of weakness. They do not have the actual resources to wage a real battle.
Most people think of terrorism as a form of violence, using guns, weapons, or bombs. But this sort of thinking is myopic in it’s limited scope. Terrorism I would expand to include any use of power by a group to frighten, expose, or scare another group into a different action, with the secondary goal of achieving political goals.
Terrorists often gauge success of their actions based on media coverage of their propaganda and of the fear mongering through psychological warfare that results in panic.
When President Obama said that he would not negotiate on this issue, and that he would not bend towards this ransoming of the good faith and credit of the US, he really cannot. The US government already has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists whether they be foreign, OR domestic.
So let’s be honest and call this what it is…….financial terrorism.
When
juvenile delinquency might be more appropriate…
“GOP officials said more than half of their members are prepared to allow default unless Obama agrees to dramatic cuts he has repeatedly said he opposes. Many more members, including some party leaders, are prepared to shut down the government to make their point. House Speaker John Boehner “may need a shutdown just to get it out of their system,” said a top GOP leadership adviser. “We might need to do that for member-management purposes — so they have an endgame and can show their constituents they’re fighting.”“
via: Behind the Curtain: House GOP eyes default, shutdown – POLITICO.com:
Alright. Just hand over the Social Security and no one gets hurt. See.
It’s also ideological terrorism. You know, the GOP has an ideology whose policies, when enacted, have repeatedly resulted in failure. So a majority (not just a plurality) of eligible voters rejected their party in favor of the Democratic Party, which has a (slightly) different ideology. The GOP sees it can’t win at the ballot box on the national level, even with gimmickry, cheating, etc. So it is using the debt ceiling crisis it ginned up as a means to force its failed ideology, which Obama actually partially agrees with (i.e., cutting the earned benefit/safety net programs, though there are better ways to address the deficit, which is shrinking, and the debt, which is fine), onto the entire country. It’s sickening, but we’ve been subject to this ideological terrorism from the right, all over the globe, for decades now. The current Congressional GOP is just even more intractable, cornered, and empowered by billionaires who’ve reaped a killing off the Bush-era giveaways, which have resulted in the failed policies and economic crises…well, you get the picture.
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