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"Playing poker is part of politics, as is theatrical posturing. That's fair enough. But what America is currently exhibiting is the worst kind of absurd theatrics. And the whole world is being held hostage.

"Irrespective of what the correct fiscal and economic policy should be for the most powerful country on earth, it's simply not possible to stop taking on new debt overnight. Most importantly, the Republicans have turned a dispute over a technicality into a religious war, which no longer has any relation to a reasonable dispute between the elected government and the opposition."

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Call them Debt Ceiling Deniers. Believers in faith-based fiscal policy. Math-challenged cause-and-effect-skeptics. And an uncomfortable chunk of the GOP’s 2012 contenders.

The costs of courting conservative populists should be clearer than ever to reality-based fiscal conservatives inside the Republican Party. Their “all-or-nothing” meets “what, me worry?” negotiating stance is not only the newest symbol of D.C.’s dysfunction — it is beginning to have an impact on the entire U.S. economy...

Michele Bachmann believes it’s all a hoax. Tim Pawlenty told an Iowa crowd, “I hope and pray and believe they should not raise the debt ceiling.” Ron Paul based his first presidential ad on a call to not raise the debt ceiling, proclaiming “No Deals.” And Rick Santorum has said that raising the debt ceiling should be avoided until a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution is passed.

This position is a long way from saying the vote to raise the debt ceiling should be contingent on a deal to reduce the deficit and the debt. It is not looking for leverage or savvy negotiation on the way to a settlement. Instead, it is prideful ignorance — an eagerness to go off the fiscal cliff to show the world that gravity does not exist.

The fact that defaulting on our debt would raise interest rates — deepening the fiscal hole we’re in by compounding the size of our deficit and debt overnight — is not addressed. Instead we are greeted with nihilistic bubble talk—at its best, economic incompetence and at its worst evidence of tactical Leninism — the belief that “the worse things get, the better they are for me politically.”...

The debt-ceiling deniers could be dismissed as just another branch of the conservative populist tribe at war with modernity. Except this time the enemy isn’t science — it’s math. And international markets don’t respond well to denial.

The growing popularity of this position among the 2012 contenders should cause real fiscal conservatives in the GOP to take a hard look in the mirror — because the conservative populists they have helped empower for short-term political gain are making long-term fiscally responsible governance almost impossible.

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They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. The stalks of grain wither and produce nothing to eat. And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it.

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Random thought: Why is it that many (but not all) deficit-deniers are also climate change-deniers, and some (but not all) are also Holocaust-deniers? Is there a connection/pattern?

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Climate change and long term economic issues are not relevant when the Rapture is right around the corner?

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Like when Jim Watt, Saint Ronnie Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, said that, since the End of the World/Rapture/Final Judgment was going to happen any day, we didn't need any laws to protect the environment or endangered animal and plant species?

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ORIGINAL: FirstQuaker

The Great Law of Peace was also the inspiration for big chunks of and the thinking behind a large number of principles the US Constitution, I suppose that makes the Six Nations the first republicans in North America as well.

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ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy

FR

Its Official: The whole world knows Obama is a blithering idiot who can be taken advantage of

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ORIGINAL: ladyneedshelp

That's funny! That's what global warming deniers say about the THEROY of global warming! If there was any FACTS behind global warming it would not be a THEROY!!

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ORIGINAL: subrob1967
Yawn, like it's a surprise that a European country wants to see the US sink down to their level...

Fuck Em, and any American who agrees with them.

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ORIGINAL: Fightdirecto

It's Official: The Whole World Thinks Republicans Are Dangerous Maniacs Threatening Everyone

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"Playing poker is part of politics, as is theatrical posturing. That's fair enough. But what America is currently exhibiting is the worst kind of absurd theatrics. And the whole world is being held hostage.

"Irrespective of what the correct fiscal and economic policy should be for the most powerful country on earth, it's simply not possible to stop taking on new debt overnight. Most importantly, the Republicans have turned a dispute over a technicality into a religious war, which no longer has any relation to a reasonable dispute between the elected government and the opposition."

Of course, Germans hate the American Republican Party and love the American Democratic Party, right?

Default would not only mean the collapse of the United States' economy, but would likely lead to the collapse of the economies of many other countries as well.

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That's funny! That's what global warming deniers say about the THEROY of global warming! If there was any FACTS behind global warming it would not be a THEROY!!