Voices
see default as an ideal alternative
to having to concede any points in
what should be a rational process
of negotiation and deal-making.
(And unfortunately for everyone,
a key enabler to this madness has
been that former Illinois senator, who opened the door to negotiating over the debt ceiling back
when he was still hopeful of a
“grand bargain” on the debt.)
But the enabling isn’t just happening in Congress, it’s happening
in the media, as well, which is why
another thing I would like to make
clear is that those who see debt
ceiling lunacy as a legitimate side
in a debate or just one more interesting point of view among many
are just as culpable in what could
be a pending economic calamity as
the lunatics themselves.
We should not be talking about
a “debate” over the debt ceiling, or
portraying a rise in the debt ceiling
as a thing that Democrats “want”
or are bargaining to obtain. I require oxygen to continue respiring.
Oxygen is not something I “want”
or am bargaining to obtain. Give
me oxygen right now or I die and
that’s that. The rise in the debt ceiling is similarly necessary, because
Congress has already agreed to
spend a certain amount of money,
JASON
LINKINS
and according to this dumb ritual,
must now affirm their intentions
to fulfill their previously agreed-to
obligations. This is not a matter for
debate — the country and the economy needs the debt ceiling rise,
full stop. Henry Blodget, in taking
up the cause of the trillion-dollar
platinum coin, similarly characterizes the entire notion of having a
“debate” over the debt ceiling as
hopelessly silly-slash-bordering on
bonkers, and he does so in a way
that’s admirably stark and accurate:
“To be clear: The “trilliondollar coin” is a ridiculous idea…
But the problem is that some of
the people who have been elected
to lead this country have revealed
themselves to be unserious, irresponsible people. How? By threatening to turn the United States of
America into a deadbeat nation
that refuses to pay its bills.”
It wasn’t always this way. But as
The New Republic’s Alec MacGillis
explains, as idle talk over debt ceiling hostake-taking evolved, seemingly overnight, into a more serious
and dangerous psychosis, the media coverage has shifted in reverse.
Where the hostage-taking was once
portrayed properly, as “brazen and
unprecedented,” the media now
gives the hostage-takers a pass.
HUFFINGTON
01.13.13