Following this story of the so-called "debt ceiling negotiations," I'm reminded of a line from Kevin Costner's Kenny O'Donnell character (a JFK aide) from the film Thirteen Days concerning the Cuban Missile Crisis. Commenting upon his hopes for a last-ditch attempt, through back-channel negotiations, to broker an end to the crisis with the Soviet Union's Khrushchev and avert a likely escalation into nuclear war, the O'Donnell character says: "If the sun comes up tomorrow, it is only because of men of good will. That's all there is between us and the devil." Men of good will don't reside in Washington DC. Not anymore, leastways. I see a far leftist-controlled democrat party banking on the GOP caving and the democrats therefore not engaging in good faith negotiations in any sense of the phrase (offering up a paltry $2 billion in 2012 budget cuts). I see a far right-controlled republic partisan party completely fearful of and beholden to the right-winger tea partiers to such a degree that they largely refuse to even consider eliminating some tax deductions, (the partisan phrase is "loophole" or, alternatively, "raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires"), as sought by the democrat party.
I could well be wrong, but I only see this situation ending badly. Very badly. I don't see Obama and his leftist 20 percenters agreeing to any significant measure of necessary budget cuts. Put another way: I don't see them caving. But republicans, ever more fearful of the left-wing advocacy organization known as the "mainstream" media than they are of even the tea partiers, may well cave and agree (as they did earlier this year) to some gimmicky proposal that purports to make significant budget cuts when it really doesn't.
Or the other possibility: No agreement is reached on raising the debt ceiling. While the House GOP members may then try to pass their own version of a debt ceiling increase and force the Senate or Obama to kill it, I believe the Senate or Obama probably would kill it (maybe I'm dead wrong there, but don't think so), relying on the democrat party's media to still point the finger of blame at the GOP. As stated above, I doubt the democrat party caves here. There's also talk of a "McConnell compromise" in the Senate, but I think that'll probably be a total non-starter with GOP House members (even if House Golfer John "Party Time" Boehner seems open to it).
So that means no agreement and we come to the point next month when the United States allegedly won't have the ability to borrow enough money to pay all of its then due-and-owing debts. Much of that concern -- driven by outright lies by Obama and his minions -- is bullshit. Social security checks will keep going out. Our military personnel will continue to be paid. But how are the markets going to react? The credit rating agencies? That's the very scary thought. That, and the fact that the men of good will have long since left the building.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110714/D9OFC8A00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/us/politics/14fiscal.html
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