Pay attention because there will be a test

Okay, let’s review.

1 – The debt ceiling is an artificial construct from World War I legislation that doesn’t limit spending in any way.  Basically, arguing over raising the debt ceiling is arguing over whether we should pay the bills we’ve already incurred.

2 – The debt ceiling has been raised a total of 74 time since 1962.  It has been raised 10 times since 2001.  Pres. Reagan raised it 18 times.

3 – Never during those 74 times had the party in power in the House or Senate taken the debt ceiling hostage to exact policy changes.  This time, the Republicans, spurred on by the Tea Party caucus, did take the ceiling hostage.

4 – Before the debt ceiling was resolved, many Republican congressmen, including Presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann, said that the ceiling shouldn’t be raised and that we should default on our obligations.  Some said this would be a good thing.

5 – The President, and ultimately, most Congressional Democrats, agreed to Republican demands and made the biggest spending cuts in history without requiring one more penny of revenue.  In fact, the President proposed cuts more than twice as large but the Republicans wouldn’t agree.

6 – The Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said that he got “98% of what I wanted,” from the negotiation.

7 – After the deal, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US credit rating and cited, among other reasons, ““The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy . . . We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”

8 – So now that we’re financially screwed and likely facing a second recession, who do the Republicans blame for the downgrade?

The Democrats.

I guess it all makes sense when you live in a world unaffected by climate change, where the rich and corporations are saintly and always have the best interests of the country at heart, where dinosaurs rode on Noah’s Ark having been created only a few centuries before, and where a center-right President is actually a Muslim, gun-taking, socialist intent on enslaving all the Christians in America. 

Because it sure doesn’t make sense here in the real world.